Taiwan Mobile forward Alexus Foyle was named SBL MVP for the month of April despite he has finished his contract with the team, which did not make the playoffs.
Foyle averaged 23.6 points and 10.3 rebounds in April. He led the team to a 15-15 record in the regular season.
SBL Monthly MVP:
April Alexus Foyle, TM
Feb/March Tseng Wen-ting, Yulon
January Shawn Hawkins, KKL
Some observation:
-- Yulon, the only team that does not hire an import player and the team that said is to "make the playoffs" at the start of the season, is now looking at its 4th SBL titles in team history.
-- These teams had played 8 games in 10 days. What kind of stupid postseason schedule was that? You can only find this in Taiwan.
-- It appeared that very few people are paying attention to the SBL Finals, which is supposed to be the best basketball competition in Taiwan, with less than 1,000 fans at each game.
-- It appeared that the players and the management thought that the only thing they should do is playing ball when only one of four head coaches attended the pre-postseason press conference two weeks ago. They didn't even bother to talk to the media.
Game 3: Yulon 72-71 Dacin
Tien Lei missed one of two free-throws with 2.8 seconds left as Dacin missed an opportunity to tie the game and lost to Yulon 72-71 in Game 3 of the 2010 SBL Finals.
Lu Cheng-ju's left-handed layup with 14.9 seconds to go helped Yulon to take a two-point lead, 72-70. He had 17 points and 7 rebounds in the game.
Chen Chih-chung had 24 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists for Yulon while Yang Che-yi had 11.
Dacin was led by Byron Allen's 19 and 9. Tien Lei had 16 points and 8 boards while Lin Yi-hui added 11.
Game 2: Dacin 79-65 Yulon
Tien Lei exploded for 31 points and 9 rebounds and Byron Allen added 19 points and 11 boards as Dacin tied the 2010 SBL Finals at 1-1 after a 79-65 victory over Yulon.
Dacin point guard Su Yi-chieh also chipped in 14 points, 7 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 steals.
Lu Cheng-ju led Yulon with 12 points and center Tseng Wen-ting had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Chou Shih-yuan and Wu Feng-cheng scored 10 each.
(Photos: ESPN Taiwan)
Four players scored in double-digits as Yulon held off Dacin in the final quarter for a 70-66 victory in Game 1 of the 2010 SBL Finals on Friday and took a 1-0 series lead.
Leading by as many as 27 points, Yulon watched its lead evaporated in the final period, when Dacin cut the deficit to one point, before veteran point guard Chen Chih-chung made a pair of free-throws with 10.9 seconds to go to increase the lead to three points.
Yulon opened the game 15-6 and had a 12-0 run late in the second quarter, leading by 22 points (42-20) at the half.
Yulon: Lee Chi-yi 13p, Lu Cheng-ju 13p+6rb, Chou Shih-yuan 13p, Lee Hsueh-lin 11p, Tseng Wen-ting 4p(1-7 FG)+5rb+5a
Dacin: Tien Lei 15p+8rb, Byron Allen 15p+8rb, Chen Tse-wei 14p+6rb, Chang Chih-feng 11p+6rb
%5B2%5D.jpg "達欣田壘(右)")
(Photos: ESPN Taiwan)
Dacin 3-2 TB
Game 1: TB 91-86 Dacin
Game 2: Dacin 84-70 TB
Game 3: TB 67-65 Dacin
Game 4: Dacin 76-70 TB
Game 5: Dacin 57-55 TB
Yulon 3-2 PY
Game 1: Yulon 77-60 PY
Game 2: PY 75-62 Yulon
Game 3: Yulon 78-68 PY
Game 4: PY 87-78 Yulon
Game 5: Yulon 76-69 PY
Defending champions the Dacin Tigers will meet Yulon Luxgen Friday in game one of a best-of-seven Super Basketball League (SBL) finals to determine Taiwan's best professional basketball team.
Both teams fought off fierce opposition to clinch their berths in the finals after a grueling five-game first-round playoff series in which Dacin edged out Taiwan Beer 57-55 and Yulon held off Pure Youth 76-69 in decisive games Wednesday.
Led by local star Tien Lei and American import Byron Allen, Dacin came back from a 2-1 deficit to beat Taiwan Beer and will try to become the third repeat champion of the SBL, Taiwan's top basketball league. Yulon won the title 2003-2006, while Taiwan Beer hoisted the championship trophies 2007-2008.
Yulon, the only team that does not hire imported players, will ride on the shoulders of star center Tseng Wen-ting and hopes to win its first title in four years.
Dacin and Yulon were tied at 19 wins and 11 losses in the 30-game regular season. Yulon, which is making its fifth appearance in the finals, routed Dacin 3-0 in the 2005 finals, the last post-season meeting of the two teams.
Dacin beat Taiwan Beer 4-3 in the best-of-seven finals last year to win its first SBL champion.
Yang Ching-min made a game-winning three at the buzzer as Taiwan Beer held on a furious rally and beat Dacin 67-65, grabbing a 2-1 lead at the best-of-five SBL first round playoff series.
In the other game, Yulon beat Pure Youth 78-68 for a 2-1 series lead.
TB, which led 44-27 at the half, watched its 17-point lead evaporated in the second half as Dacin, led by import Byron Allen and Tien Lei, staged a strong comeback bid. Allen scored on a putback off Tien's miss with 10.9 seconds to go to help Dacin lead by 65-64, its first lead after the first quarter.
TB relied on Yang, who scored 18, and Lin Chih-chieh, who had 19 points.
Byron Allen tallied 18 points and 18 boards for Dacin, which also received 11 points and 9 rebounds from Tien Lei. Su Yi-chieh added 13 points and reigning SBL Finals MVP Chang Chih-feng turned in 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Yulon center Tseng Wen-ting walked out from the slump and had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists in the most important game of the series. Lu Cheng-ju had 19 points. Chen Chih-chung had 14 and Lee Chi-yi added 10.
PY was once again led by James Mao, who had a game-high 24 points and 6 rebounds, and Jon Sanders while other players were completely shut down by Yulon's defense. Sanders had 23 and 10.
(Photo: ESPN Taiwan)
April 30
TB 91-86 (OT) Dacin (TB leads 1-0)
%5B2%5D.jpg "台啤林志傑(中)")
Taiwan Beer came out and shocked defending champ Dacin in the opening game as Derek Stribling scored 8 of his game-high 26 points in overtime. TB also forced Dacin to committ an eye-popping 25 turnovers.
Yang Ching-min had 17 points for TB and Lin Chih-chieh came off the bench to score 14 points in his first game in Taiwan this season.
Dacin was led by Tien Lei's 24 points and 7 rebounds and Byron Allen, who had 18 points and 17 boards. Lin Yi-hui added 16 points.
Yulon 77-60 PY (Yulon leads 1-0)
Yulon used its balanced-scoring and always brilliant defense to contain Pure Youth's perimeter shooting in Game 1 of the semifinal series.
Yang Che-yi scored a team-high 16 points and Lu Cheng-ju had 13 points. Lin Kuan-lun scored 15 while Chen Chih-chung had 11 points and 8 rebounds. Center Tseng Wen-ting turned in 13 boards and 5 assists but only had 8 points on 4-of-14 shooting.
Pure Youth was led by James Mao's 19 points. Jon Sanders had 17 points and 20 rebounds. Chien Chia-hung also had a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds.
May 1
Dacin 84-70 TB (Series tied 1-1)
%5B2%5D.jpg "達欣田壘(右)")
Dacin broke the game open with a 18-5 run in the third quarter to tie the series at 1-1. Tien Lei and import Byron Allen scored 17 each and combined for 20 rebounds.
Chang Chih-fung and Su Yi-chieh had 15 points respectively for the winner.
TB lost its steam in Game 2 as Derek Stribling scored 16 points and Lin Chih-chieh, who dominated the ball too much in the game, had only 11. No other players scored in double-figures.
PY 75-62 Yulon (Series tied 1-1)
Pure Youth made 9 three-pointers in the game and limited Yuon to 6 points in the second quarter to tie the series at one game apiece.
Jon Sanders paced PY with 25 points and 18 rebounds while James Mao had 19 points and 8 boards.
Lu Cheng-ju led Yulon with 15 points. Tseng Wen-ting struggled again. Tseng, widely seen as the league's best center, had only 8 points and 9 rebounds on 4-of-15 shooting.
(Photos: ESPN Taiwan)
Note: An apology for not updating game info for the past week, during which I went to Hong Kong for a business trip. The teams were obviously tanking the final week anyway, resting starters and avoiding injuries before the postseason.
KKL forward/guard Chen Ching-huan was named Week 14 MVP, the final weekly award of the 2010 season. Chen averaged 28 points and 11 rebounds for the week, including a 34-point career-high performance.
For the season, the under-appreciated star averaged 14.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals.
2010 SBL Weekly MVPs
Week 14: Chen Ching-huan, KKL
Week 13: Shawn Hawkins, KKL
Week 12: Jonathan Sanders, PY
Week 12: Tien Lei, Dacin
Week 10: Jonathan Sanders, PY
Week 9: Chen Shun-hsiang, BOT
Week 8: Chen Chih-chung, Yulon
Week 7: Derek Stribling, TB
Week 6: Jonathan Sanders, PY
Week 5: Alexus Foyle, TM
Week 4: Shawn Hawkins, KKL
Week 3: Chang Chih-feng, Dacin
Week 2: Tseng Wen-ting, Yulon
Week 1: Jonathan Sanders, PY
(Photo: ESPN Taiwan)
1. Dacin 19-11
2. Yulon 19-11
3. PY 17-13
4. TB 17-13
5. TM 15-15
6. KKL 14-16
7. BOT 4-26
Scoring
1. Shawn Hawkins, KKL 24.9
2. Alexus Foyle, TM 23.4
3. Cheng Jen-wei, KKL 19.1
4. Jon Sanders, PY 18.0
5. Chen Shun-shiang, BOT 17.5
Rebounding
1. Jon Sanders, PY 12.8
2. Shawn Hawkins, KKL 11.2
3. Alexus Foyle, TM 9.8
4. Tseng Wen-ting, Yulon 9.1
5. Byron Allen, Dacin 8.6
Assists
1. Jon Sanders, PY 4.7
2. Chen Shih-nian, TB 4.3
3. Wu Yung-jen, TM 4.1
4. Tseng Wen-ting, Yulon 3.9
5. Chen Chih-chung, Yulon 3.5
Steals
1. Chang Chih-feng, Dacin 2.3
2. Tseng Wen-ting, Yulon 1.8
3. Shawn Hawkins, KKL 1.5
4. Jon Sanders, PY 1.4
5. Chen Shih-nian, TB 1.4
Blocked Shots
1. Tseng Wen-ting, Yulon 2.5
2. Cheng Jen-wei, KKL 1.7
3. Wu Tai-hao, TB 1.3
4. Jon Sanders, PY 1.3
5. Byron Allen, Dacin 1.2