Tien Lei tortured YMY once again, scoring 43 points as Dacin (14-7) cruised by YMY 95-79 and closed in on second place TB (14-6) with only a half game behind.
Throwing as many as three different defenders, YMY still couldn't find the solution of Tien Lei, who scored a career-high 45 points in the Feb. 5 matchup of both sides. Tien once again fired at will inside or outside and was three points short of the new personal record.
Starting in late third quarter, Dacin went to Tien Lei almost on every possession trying to give him a new career-high. Tien was obviously tired, however, as he missed time and again.
Still, this is the third highest scoring output behind Chen Hsin-an's SBL all-time high of 52 points and Tien's 45.
YMY lost its 17th straight. Second-year forward Wang Chuan-jian had a career-high 32 points.
With about 10 games to go in the season, three of the four playoff seeds are almost set. Yulon, TB and Dacin are definitely in. VL, thanks to the three-game winning streak and BOT's three-game skid, is leading BOT by two games and is favored to get the final ticket.
Dacin 95-79 YMY
Dacin: Tien Lei 43p(13-33 FG)+15rb+3s, Chang Chi-feng 21p, Su Yi-chieh 14p+5a
YMY: Wang Chuan-jian 32p, Chen Shi-jay 12p
Yulon 98-88 BOT
Yulon: Chen Chih-chun 28, Lee Hsueh-lin 23p, Tsun Wen-din 20p+13rb
BOT: Wang Shin-kai 17p, Chuan Hsiao-wen 16p, Ju Yong-hong 14p, Cheng An-jay 14p
TB 90-70 ETSN
TB: Ho Sho-jen 20, Wu Chih-yuan 18p, Lin Chi-jay 12p+7rb+10TO
ETSN: Yang Yu-min 17p, O-Yang Jin-hen 13p
*Standings:
Yulon 16-5, TB 14-6, Dacin 14-7, VL 10-10, BOT 8-12, ETSN 7-13, YMY 2-18