Monday, October 19, 2009

Shanxi wins 2009 Guanhu Cup Invitational Tournament

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Lee Benson and Donta Smith dominated the tournament throughout as China's Shanxi won the 2009 Guanhu Cup Invitational Tournament in the eastern Taiwan resort city of Hualien Sunday after routing Taiwan Beer 102-69 in the title game.

However, the annual tournament which was also known as Hualien Probation Basketball (HPB) tournament has been marred by none other than South Korea's Kyunghee University. The KU team, one of South Korean college basketball powerhouses, boycotted the game on opening day before going for a bench-clearing brawl on the final day.

5200254-2203831 The most intriguing team is the US team, which consists of mostly Afghan players coming from the U.S. I haven't had the chance to see them play since no TV station broadcast the tournament this year.

A good news for Yulon was the return of Chen Hsin-an, who had both of his knees operated in the U.S. this summer. Sitting out for almost the enitre year, Chen Hsin-an was still rusty in his first game back, scoring 6 points and pulling down 6 rebounds in 26 minutes.

Taiwan Beer signed a pair of veterans in Shan Wei-fan and Shin Jin-jan to fill the void of Lin Chih-chieh, who left taiwan to play for China's Zhejiang this year.

Oct. 14
Shanxi 91-76 Yulon
US 99-45 Malaysia
KKL 84-76 Dacin
TB 62-60 Kyunghee Univ.

Oct .15
Kyunghee Univ. 84-81 KKL
Shanxi 91-52 Malaysia
Yulon 82-65 US
TB 78-75 Dacin

Oct. 16
US 75-71 Shanxi
TB 94-85 KKL
Yulon 94-64 Malaysia
Kyunghee 73-58 Dacin

Oct. 17
Shanxi 94-76 Kyunghee Univ.
TB 90-82 Yulon
US 79-66 Dacin

Oct. 18
3rd-place game: Yulon 83-73 Kyunghee Univ.
Title game: Shanxi 102-69 TB
Final Placing:
1. Shanxi
2. Taiwan Beer
3. Yulon
4. Kyunghee University

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(Photos: Liberty Times, Apple Daily, UDN.com)