(Taipei, Taiwan) ETSN and Bank of Taiwan, two teams that were at the bottom half of the standing, had a breakthrough week in the Super Basketball League (SBL) as both teams recorded its first winning streak of the season.
In a bizarre week that top teams Yulon and Dacin played poorly and teams at the bottom moved up, maybe we can say a cold front that sees the temperature dropped to as low as 7 degree centigrade is one of the reasons since Taiwan is always a hot and humid country.
BOT pulled out the biggst upset of the season in a 79-76 shocker over Yulon and snapped a 10-game losing streak to Yulon. Chuang Hsiao-wen made 8 of 11 three-pointers in the first BOT win over Yulon since the SBL was established three years ago.
A night later BOT registered its first winning streak of the season when it beat YMY 86-75.
ETSN also shook off the early season slump and had two lop-sided wins in the week, defeating BOT and Videoland.
Dacin dropped to one game behind Taiwan Beer after losing to TB 95-88 Sunday and finished 1-2 in the week. Tien Lei sat out one of the two losses due to a bad cold but averaged 23 points in two games.
Videoland had a roller-coaster week. The Hunters beat TB 77-75 on a last-second shot by Yang Che-yi but was pounded by ETSN 93-65 after a humiliating second half when it scored only 24 points but allowed 46.
VL was hit by another bad news when Huang Chun-hsiung hurt his knee in the ETSN game. It's not clear when Huang will be back.
** Lin Chih-jay of Taiwan Beer was named the Week 4 Baller of the Week and the December MVP. Lin averaged 23.7 points and 5.8 rebounds in 7 games in December and is currently leading the league in scoring.
Jan. 6
ETSN 84-60 BOT (Yang Yu-min 22p, Wu Jun-hsiung 19p ; Cheng An-jay 11p+13rb+3blk, Chien Ming-fu 11p)
Yulon 99-92 Dacin (Tsun Wen-din 18p+8rb+6a, Wei Yong-tai 18p+7rb, Chou Shih-yuan 14, Lee Hseuh-lin 13p, Chen Chih-chun 10p+7a ; Chen Tse-wei 27p, Wang Chih-chun 22p, Lin Yi-huei 18p, Tien Lei DNP)
Jan. 7
VL 77-75 TB (Lee Chi-yi 24p+11rb, Yang Che-yi 8p+7rb ; Lin Chi-jay 19p, Chen Shih-nian 15p)
BOT 79-76 Yulon (Chuan Hsiao-wen 24p, Wu Yong-jen 21p+8rb+10a, Lin Chun-feng 13p ; Lu Cheng-ju 15p, Tsun Wen-din 12p)
Dacin 87-62 YMY (Wang Chih-chun 28p, Tien Lei 18p+16rb+6blk ; Lo Shin-liang 16p, Wang Chuan-jian 14p)
Jan. 8
ETSN 93-65 VL (Wu Jia-long 17p, Yang Yu-min 17p, O-Yang Jin-hen 14p ; Wu Cheng-yu 13p, Lee Chi-yi 7p+10rb)
BOT 86-75 YMY (Lin Chun-feng 18p, Chien Ming-fu 18p ; Lo Shin-liang 26p, Chen Shih-jay 19p)
TB 95-88 Dacin (Lin Chih-jay 29p, Shan Wei-fan 16p, Lee Wei-min 14p ; Tien Lei 28p, Lee Fong-yong 17p, Wang Chih-chun 17p+10rb)
**Standings:
Yulon 8-2, TB 7-3, Dacin 6-4, VL 4-5, BOT 4-6, ETSN 3-7, YMY 2-7