With light-blue ribbons sailing through the air and their fans cheering with joy, the Dacin Tigers clinched their first-ever league title with a convincing 81-64 win over Taiwan Beer in the decisive Game 7 of Championship Finals at the Taipei County Sports Complex in Sinjhuang on Tuesday evening.
The regular season champs overcame a slow start that saw them lose the first two games to win four of the next five contests en route to the big victory.
Leading the way for the Cats with a game-high 23 points was Wang Chih-chuin, who came off the Dacin bench and nailed timely shots that either dampened rallies by the Beer Crew or sparked runs for the Tigers to keep the two-time defending champs from making it three in a row.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
“This is the one we’ve all been looking for,” a champagne-drenched Wang said after the game.
Also starring for the Tigers were center Byron Allen, with a game-high 16 rebounds, and point guard Su Yi-jeh, whose six assists were also a game-high.
Allen’s put-back basket off the offensive glass gave the Tigers a crucial eight-point lead early in the fourth, and Su wowed the crowd with a beautiful no-look pass to Wang that led to an easy layup, putting the Tigers ahead by 11 in the closing minutes of the game.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Taiwan Beer came out firing by scoring the first nine points to take a 15-10 lead by the end of the first quarter.
But things took a turn south for Beer as the Tigers answered with an outstanding defensive effort in the second quarter to close out the half up 27-24.
A slew of threes by the Tigers in the third quickly upped their lead to double-digits, but Taiwan Beer countered with an attack on the inside by Wu Dai-hao and at the perimeter by Ho Sho-cheng and Yang Yu-ming that reduced the gap to six heading into the final quarter.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Taiwan Beer would fall to within four of the Tigers at one point in the fourth, but that was as close as they got as the Tigers turned it up in the end to blow the game wide open and claim the victory.
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
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