Jonathan Sanders had 30 points and 15 rebounds as Videoland Hunters beat Taiwan Beer 99-86 Saturday in a matchup of the league's two top teams and cruised to its franchise-best seven-game winning streak.
Sanders scored 11 of his 30 points in the first quarter and quickly led VL to a double-digit lead as Hunters led 47-29 at halftime. VL led by as many as 23 points in the second half and shot 38-of-66 in the game.
TB didn't push for a final surge until the final period, when it made 8 threes to make the ballgame interesting again. But VL prevailed.
"Is Jonathan Sander really shorter than 200cm?" TB head coach Yen Jia-hua questioned Sanders' height in the post-game conference. The SBL has a 200cm(6-7) import height limit.
For all I know, Jonathan Sanders is a player who can play, loves to play and make his teammates to enjoy play ball again, which was not the case last year. Does it make a difference if he is 180cm(5-11) tall? 197cm(6-5 1/2)? 203cm(6-8)?
Anyway, Yen's challenge sounds absurd to me. And actually it rang my bell about the old CBA days when teams would repeatedly question import players' height if they were embarrassed by those players or didn't have a clue about defending them.
Yang Che-yi had 17 points for VL, which outrebounded TB 40-27, while Lee Chi-yi had 10 and 7. Lin Tsun-ching surprised with a 12-point game on 5-of-6 shooting.
Taiwan Beer, which saw its three-game winning streak snapped, was led by Lin Chih-jay's 27 points and 8 boards. Ho Sho-jen added 26.
Dacin 92-79 Azio
Dacin: Su Yi-chieh 21p, Tien Lei 20p+12rb+4a, Yen Jia-wei 16p, Lin Yi-huei 10p
Azio: Chien Jia-hong 20p, Chang Yu-lin 16p, Chou Tse-hua 13p+5a
Yulon 88-78 BOT
Yulon: Chang Yi-wen 11p, Liu Shen-yao 11p, Chou Shih-yuan 11p
BOT: Chen Shun-hsiang 29p, Yang Chin-min 10p+7rb