Saturday, April 30, 2005

ETSN upset Yulon to keep playoffs dream alive

ETSN bigmen Wu Dai-hao and Wu Jun-hsiung dominated the paint as ETSN upset Yulon 88-75 in the season finale to keep its playoffs dream alive. ETSN will be waiting for the result of Taiwan Beer-Sina game tomorrow to know whether it has another game to play.

ETSN finished its season 16-14 after a strong 11-6 second-half performance under new head coach Lee Yun-hsiang. As of today Taiwan Beer is 15-14 and still favored to grab the final playoff spot, since it’s expected to take the Sina game and holds the head-to-head tiebreaker advantage. Taiwan Beer is 3-2 vs. ETSN in the regular season.

Wu Dai-hao had 25 points and 10 rebounds and Wu Jun-hsiung had 22 and 9 for ETSN, which played its best game of the season and led by as many as 22 points in the third quarter. Wu Dai-hao, who has been making smooth progress in the second-half of the season, had at least five rim-rattling dunks in the game.

ETSN jumped ahead with an 11-0 run after giving up the game’s first six points to Yulon, which was forced to play a catch-up game in the last 35 minutes. Yang Yu-min and Wu Cheng-dao each scored 13 points for ETSN.

However this is not a night for Yulon, which looked unstoppable before the game. Yulon’s outside shots didn’t start falling until the fourth quarter. Its defense and rebounding is horrible. Chen Hsin-an made four three-pointers in the last quarter when Yulon cut the deficit to single-digit but it’s still too late.

Yulon’s 11-game winning streak was snapped. Chen Hsin-an led Yulon with 29 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Chou Shih-yuan had 14 points.

Yulon will meet second-place Videoland, which has dropped three straight, in the final game.

Taiwan Beer beat Bank of Taiwan 72-66 in the first game. BOT closed the season with a 9-game losing streak.

Apr. 30
ETSN 88-75 Yulon
ETSN: Wu Dai-hao 25p+10rb, Wu Jun-hsiung 22p+9rb, Yang Yu-min 13p, Wu Cheng-dao 13p
Yulon: Chen Hsin-an 29p+7rb+4a, Chou Shih-yuan 14p

Taiwan Beer 72-66 BOT
TB: Lin Chi-jay 19p, Lee Wei-min 18p
BOT: Hsu Chi-chan 14p+12rb, Chien Ming-fu 13p, Lin Chun-feng 12p

Apr. 29
Dacin 93-86 Videoland
Dacin: Tien Lei 24p+5rb, Lin Yi-huei 19p, Lee Fong-yong 10p+8rb
VL: Yang Che-yi 20p+6a, Lin Jia-huang 15p, Chen Huei 12p+6rb+7a+5s, Hsiung Jen-jen 11p