SBL regular season games will resume on Feb. 7 after a two-week lunar new year vacation. Dacin Tigers, which did not make the postseason last year, is leading with a perfect 4-0 record with the return of top scorer Tien Lei and the addition of import player Byron Allen.
The defending champion Taiwan Beer has not been playing well and hungry, splitting its first four games as its top two scorers Lin Chih-chieh and Ho Shou-cheng were both in an opening season slump and haven't come out of the hole.
And Yulon is no longer called Dinos, changing its team name to Luxgen, a new automobile brand name of its mother corporation Yulon Motors.
Taiwan Mobile rookie Yen Cheng-hung (197cm) made an impressive debut in the January 17 win over Yulon, chipping in 19 points and grabbing five rebounds.
Two import players -- Mario Boggan and Byron Allen -- have not had the huge impact as expected as they were either battling foul trouble or weight problem. Allen fouled out in three of four games he has played for Dacin while Boggan appeared in only two games (19 minutes to be exact) so far. Both also had trouble getting used to a quicker pace of Taiwanese playing style.
Jan. 18
Yulon 92-82 KKL
Yulon: Tseng Wen-ting 29p+9rb, Chou Shih-yuan 25p, Chang Yi-ming 9p+11rb+4a
KKL: Lin Kwan-lun 23p, Shan Wei-fan 18p
BOT 90-87 PY
BOT: Hsu Chi-chan 24p+10rb+4a, Lin Chun-fung 22p
PY: Chien Chia-hung 17p+9rb, Chen Shih-chieh 15p+8rb+8a, Chang Yu-lin 13p
Dacin 70-62 TM
Dacin: Chang Chih-fung 24p+9rb, Tien Lei 20p+8rb, Byron Allen 12p+7rb
TM: Wu Yung-jen 11p, Liu Sheng-yao 11p, Mario Boggan 10p+5rb
Jan. 17
TM 76-68 Yulon
TM: Yen Cheng-hung 19p+5rb, Wu Yung-jen 14p+9a, Hsu Wei-sheng 12p+9rb+3blk
Yulon: Tseng Wen-ting 16p+9rb+4blk, Wei Yung-tai 12p+7rb, Chen Hsin-an DNP (injury)
Dacin 88-72 BOT
Dacin: Chang Chih-fung 17p, Tien Lei 15p+8rb, Byron Allen 16p+12rb
BOT: Chen Shun-hsiang 13p, Hsu Chi-chan 13p+8rb
TB 75-72 PY
TB: Yang Ching-min 22p, Lin Chih-chieh 9p+10rb+7a, Wu Tai-hao 16p+7rb
PY: Tsai Wen-cheng 14p, Chien Chia-hung 12p
Jan. 16
TB 87-74 BOT
TB: Yang Ching-min 18p, Wu Tai-hao 14p+7rb
BOT: Chang Po-sheng 16p, Chien Chia-hung 16p
PY 109-103 KKL
PY: Chen Shih-chieh 20p+5rb+7a, Wu Chien-lung 14p+6rb, Tsai Wen-cheng 29p+9rb
KKL: Lee Wei-min 25p, Shin Chin-chan 20p
Standings:
Dacin 4-0
Yulon 2-1
TB 2-2
PY 2-2
TM 2-2
BOT 1-3
KKL 1-3