Doug Creighton's offensive rebound and putback helped Pure Youth beat Elite Talent Exchange 89-86 to win the 2011 Probation Cup Invitational in Taiwan's eastern city of Hualien on Sunday.
Zuo Tsun-kai missed consecutive free-throws but Creighton, who joined PY this summer, grabbed the offensive rebound for the winning basket as PY, which led by as many as 18 points, held off ETE's furious rally in the last period.
The 2011 Probation Cup Invitational Tournament will be held from Oct. 12-16 in the eastern Taiwan city of Hualien with nine teams in contention for the tourney, which is in its tenth year.
Malaysian national team, Elite Talent Exchange and seven SBL teams will be divided into two groups in the preliminary round with top four teams in each group advancing to the knock-out second round, where top two teams in each group will meet in a cross-over semifinals and the third- and fourth-ranked teams meet in 5-8 place classification games.
Chen Hsin-an, arguably Taiwan's best player, would play in his home country Taiwan next season after signing with Pure Youth Construction on Friday, local media reported.
Chen, who spent the last two years with Dongguan in the Chinese league CBA, decided to play closer to his family as he now have two daughters.
The 1.96-meter forward sign with Pure Youth for two years with the maximum monthly salary of NT$120,000 (US$3,936) allowed under SBL regulation. Signing bonuses and incentives were not disclosed. (However, I suspect that PY would pay Chen more than that.)
[Liu Cheng]
Liu Cheng was named the top pick in the 2011 SBL local players draft on Oct. 7 as 13 of 17 applicants were selected by six SBL teams.
Liu, a 1.90-meter forward from Min Dao University, was selected by KKL at No. 1 as expected while Chen Hsiao-jung went No. 2 to Taiwan Mobile and Lai Po-lin was picked up by Bank of Taiwan at No. 3.
Former Dacin head coach Liu Jia-fa will join Taiwan Beer's coaching staff as an assistant coach, local media reported last week.
Liu twice led Dacin to advance to the SBL Finals but lost to Yulon and Taiwan Beer respectively. He coached Chunghwa Telecom of the women's league WSBL for two years after leaving Dacin.