Taiwan Beer continued its dominance of the Dacin Tigers with an 88-81 win over the regular season champs in Game Two of the Championship Finals at the Taipei County Sports Complex in Sinjhuang on Saturday. The victory gave Beer a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Lin “the Beast” Chih-jeh played the role of the Tiger-killer once again, following a spectacular effort in Game One with another brilliant effort.
Lin struck for a game-high 34 with seven rebounds and five assists to pave the way for the defending champs.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
The two-time finals MVP showed why he is the most feared man in the postseason by hitting eight of nine shots taken in a 20-point first half.
“They decided to take away the three’s from me tonight, so I tried to drive the ball a little more and it worked,” the Beast said after the game.
He drained five of 10 three’s taken in Game One to force the Tigers to guard him more closely.
The contest saw the Beer crew up 22-19 after the opening quarter, with 13 from the Beast.
Taiwan Beer went on a 10-0 run early in the second quarter to open a double-digit lead. But the Tigers answered with a 19-8 run behind the outstanding play of Chang Chih-fong to close out the half trailing 38-40.
Thirteen big points by Byron Allen in the third quarter — mostly from inside the paint — helped give the Tigers their first lead of the game.
But the lead was brief as Taiwan Beer looked to the Beast to pick up the scoring slack and finished off the quarter with an 8-0 run to reclaim a 68-64 advantage.
After a 14-3 run that pushed Taiwan Beer’s lead to what appeared an insurmountable 82-67 cushion midway through the fourth, the Tigers rallied once more. Chang led the way on a 10-0 run to bring his team to within five.
That was as close as they got as the Beast rose to the occasion one final time to help his club pull away in the end.
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