Perth Wildacts beat Taiwan NT on consecutive nights in a 99-93 victory Wednesday, following a 100-74 blowout Tuesday, to open its second round campaign in the Asia Professional Basketball tournament. The Wildcats is riding on a five-game winning streak and looks like the favorite to win it all.
Following the single round-robin preliminaries, Taiwan NT, Perth Wildcats, LG Sakers and Niigata Albirex will play in yet another single round-robin second round before the final round, where the top two teams meet for gold and the other two play for the third-place Saturday.
Ben Hunt scored six of his team-high 19 points in the last two minutes to keep the score out of reach. Perth led from start to finish and as many as 24 points in the third quarter before Taiwan NT made the last push.
With a 21-7 run in the third and another 8-0 run in the fourth quarter, the home team cut the deficit to three, 89-86, with 2:35 to go. But Hunter took over from there and increased the lead to eight with 28.2 seconds remaining.
Tony Ronaldson scored 14 points for the winner. Adam Caporn had 12.
Lin Chi-jay scored 19 to lead the Taiwanese, followed by Chen Hisn-an's 18. Chou Shih-yuan came off the bench to score 16, including four 3-pointers, in 22 minutes. Tsun Wen-din had 15 points and 9 assists. Lee Chi-yi had 11 points.
In the second game of the night, LG routed Niigata 102-73 to avenge the 97-84 loss last night to the Albirex in its last preliminary game. LG opened the game with a 20-1 run and led by as many as 31 points.
Second round standings:
Perth Wildcats 1-0
Niigata Albirex 1-0
Taiwan NT 0-1
LG Sakers 0-1