JOHOR BAHRU (Malaysia) - Taoyuan Pauian opened their BCL Asia-East 2026 Final 6 campaign with a bang by showing Hi-Tech Basketball Club the door, 104-75, at the Arena Larkin Indoor Stadium, Wednesday.
The Pilots seized control early, stretched the lead to double digits in the second chapter, and then broke the game wide open come the third on the way to stretching their unbeaten run to seven games in the tilt.
But more than staying perfect, the P. League+ outfit have completed half of the Semi-Finals picture, eliminating their Basketball Thai League counterparts while helping South China Athletic Association get a free ride.
The HKA1 representatives beat Hi-Tech some 24 hours ago with a come-from-behind 92-90 win, and the Chinese Taipei side's rousing victory makes their meeting on Thursday a battle for the no. 1 seed in Group B.
"It's important, knowing how difficult it is to play three games in four days. Luckily today most of the players had minutes; we had a chance to rotate," head coach Iurgi Caminos said. "Still, we have to take it step by step."
"It's good that we don't need for the last day to arrive to see the points or wins or losses, and already have a chance to at least prepare a little bit better for what's going to come this weekend," he added.
Five players finished in double figures in the win, with Setric Millner, Jr. leading the way with 20 points. Will Artino came through with yet another double-double as he tallied 16 points and 14 rebounds.
Alec Brown supplied 14 points and 7 rebounds. Star guard Justin Lu made 13 points and 6 assists, while Li Chia-Kang buried a quartet of triples and chipped in 12 points, which he laced with 5 rebounds off the bench.
Three-point shooting was indeed a factor in the rout as Taoyuan Pauian nailed 17 - the most by any team in the 2016 competitions, eclipsing the 16 made by New Taipei in their 107-99 win over SCAA last April 18.
"It's definitely difficult [to beat us] when we hit out shots," said Millner, who also had four triples.
"But as what Coach said earlier: Just take what they're giving us," he added as their treys proved to be an apt response to the zone in the third. "We did a great job of penetrating and forcing a bunch of kickouts."
"Tonight, we just made 'em," Millner continued.
Eric Freeman, on the other hand, finished with 16 points and 6 rebounds plus 6 steals and a block to lead Hi-Tech, who finished their Final 6 campaign winless and bowed out with an overall win-loss record of 3-5.
Nakorn Jaisanuk had 13 points, while Spencer Williams-Rodgers added 11 as Freddie Lish and Chanatip Jakrawan were held to a combined 12 points in the loss that dashed their bid of returning to the BCL Asia once more.
FIBA