Saturday, December 01, 2007

Exhibition games kick off new SBL season


Lin Chi-jay (Source: ESPN Taiwan)

A series of exhibition games kicked off the 2007-08 SBL season Saturday in Jhubei City, Hsinchu County. Defending champion Taiwan Beer pounded Dacin Tigers 106-83 while Pure Youth edged Bank of Taiwan 75-72.



The matchup between Pure Youth, formerly known as Azio, and BOT was interesting as both team were led by new head coaches: Wu Jian-kuo of Pure Youth and Lai Liang-chung of BOT.

Hong Chih-shan made consecutive three-pointers and Chien Jia-hong added three free-throws as Pure Youth upset BOT with a 13-2 run in the last minutes. Zuo Tsun-kai led Pure Youth with 15 points. James Mao had 13 points to go with 9 boards and Chien added 13.

Chen Shun-hsiang led BOT with 17 points and Lin Chun-fung had 16.

In the second game, Dacin was no match for Taiwan Beer, trailing by 18 at the half. Reigning SBL MVP Lin Chi-jay had 15 points and 6 assists. Ho Sho-jen had 15 points. Newcomer Wu Dai-hao, who was expected to fill TB's void in the middle this season, added 12 points.

Dacin, led by new head coach Chiu Da-tsun, was led by Lin Yi-huei's 22 points. Two new Tigers were off all night. Yua Ying-li, who played for BOT last year, had 7 points and Yang Yu-min, who played for ETSN last season, was scoreless.