(Chen Tse-wei had 27 points in Game 2, photo courtesy of ESPN Taiwan)
Dacin forward Chen Tse-wei scored 17 of his career playoff-high 27 points in the 4th quarter and outdueled TB star forward Lin Chih-jay, who had 14 in the period, as Dacin beat TB 84-78 in Game 2 of the 2007 SBL Finals and tied the series at 1-1.
Chen, who has been playing the best ball of his career in the playoffs, made all nine of his two-point attempts and was 2-of-4 from three and 3-of-4 at the free-throw line in the game. The last of his three-pointers came at 1:55 remaining and increased Dacin's lead to 77-70. Chen then made three of four free-throws to keep the score out of reach.
Dacin, which trailed 44-39 at the half, rode on Chen and Tien Lei's shoulders in the second half when they outscored TB 45-34. Tien Lei had 22 points and 9 boards for the Tigers. Chang Chi-feng added 10.
TB was led by Lin Chih-jay's 33 points. However, no one scored more than 10 points except for Shan Wei-fan, who had 13. Ho Sho-jen scored only 7 points before fouling out of the game with 4:51 to go.
Chen Tse-wei has been used as the primary substitute for several seasons. Mainly a three-point shooter during the regular season, Chen came out of nowhere and became the most reliable and fearless scorers -- other than Tien -- for Dacin in the post season. He had 18 and 12 points in Dacin's first two playoff games this year and helped Dacin upset Yulon in the first two games of first round series to a 2-0 lead. He also scored 15 in Game 4.
The biggest change for Chen was he started to take the ball strong to the basket instead of only looking for three-point shots. The inside-outside mix made him hard to stop for TB defenders.
(Jonathan Sanders's 21 points were not enough, photo courtesy of ESPN Taiwan)
Jonathan Sanders finally broke out of a slump and played his best game in this post season by scoring 21 points and pulled down 15 rebounds, including 13 points in the third quarter, but that wasn't enough to stop Yulon from winning Game 2 of the third-place series 77-72. Both teams are now tied 1-1 in the best-of-five series.
Chen Hsin-an led five Yulon double-digit scoreres with 18 points. Tsun Wen-din and Chen Chih-chun had 15 points apiece. Lu Cheng-ju and Lee Hsueh-lin both had 10 points.
Yang Che-yi had 18 points for the Hunters.