ULAANBAATAR (Mongolia) - In a battle between the Chinese Taipei clubs, the recently crowned P.League+ champions Taoyuan Pilots came out on top 81-62 at the MBank Arena in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia Friday night.
The win clinches the Pilots a spot in the Final and at the Basketball Champions League Asia which will be played from 7-13 June in Dubai, UAE.
"Happy for this. Happy for winning. Happy for playing another Final this season and happy to qualify for the BCL Asia," said Pilots head coach Iurgi Caminos.
The two teams tussled back and forth early in the game before the Pilots broke out for a 10-0 run towards the end of the first quarter.
The New Taipei Kings were lifted in the first half by big time performances from Mike Efevberha (14 points and 5 rebounds in the first half) and Chris Johnson (9 points and 11 rebounds in the first half). However, the Pilots stayed ahead with their balanced offense anchored by Jarrod Jones' 14 points and 5 rebounds in the first two quarters.
Efevberha continued to provide the firepower for the Kings, closing the double-digit deficit down to only 4 points early in the fourth quarter and finished the game with 26 points (leading all scorers) and 9 rebounds.
However, tough baskets by Alec Brown (10 points, 9 rebounds) and Julian Boyd (7 points, 6 rebounds) - who both struggled to find through mark earlier in the game - kept the momentum from swinging away from the Pilots.
"We fought pretty hard for about 32 minutes, [it became a four-point game and I think guys just got gassed, got a little tired in the fourth quarter and made some mistakes and turnovers which led them to get easy points." said Efevberha. "But I give credit to my team."
"I was telling them throughout the whole game, keep fighting, have fun and that’s what they did. That’s the King’s way, to fight to the end."
A monster dunk by Jones to push the Pilots lead to over 10 points, shortly followed by a dagger three-pointer by Lu Chun Hsiang - his only made field goal of the game - extinguished the hopes of a comeback by the Kings and sealed Taoyuan's spot in the Final.
"I think we just played our normal basketball. They switched up a little bit and threw a zone at us, a zone press at us and we just adjusted and its something that coch prepared us for ahead of time," said Jones.
"I think basketball is a game of runs. They will have good runs, we will have good runs. It’s just a matter of playing it to the end of the game."
Jones finished the game with 23 points and 12 rebounds. The Pilots had 7 players score at least 7 points in this game.
The Kings also had a monster game from Chris Johnson (11 points, 20 rebounds, and 5 assists) before falling short of the Final and qualifying for BCL Asia.
The Final will be played tomorrow May 30 at 9:00 PM (local time). The third placed game will be played at 6:00 PM (local time).
FIBA