TAIPEI CITY (Chinese Taipei) - New Taipei took the scalp of no less than the Chinggis Broncos, 80-79, for their first winning streak in the BCL Asia-East 2026 at the University of Taipei Tianmu Gymnasium, Sunday.
The Kings raced to a decade's worth of a lead after the first and then widened as much in the third, but needed to repel the visitors' late rally on the way to pulling off the upset against the league's defending champions.
Jalen Harris sank the marginal free throw to break the deadlock with 26.2 seconds remaining, and a rare Ian Miller airball hauled down by Chien You-Che as time expired proved enough to continue their turnaround.
From a disappointing 0-2 start into the season, the TPBL representatives have now won twice in a row to go 2-2 after dealing the Broncos their first loss in a BCL Asia Qualifiers setting since the 2024 competitions.
The Mongolian side lost to Prawira Harum Bandung, 94-83, during the play-in for Round 2 before going 8-0 in the following season, when the tilt got rebranded to BCL Asia-East, en route to becoming the inaugural champs.
"We played probably our best team defense in the tournament," Coach Hung Chih-Shan said. "The gameplan was to contain Ian Miller and obviously, he only had seven points, and let other players score instead of him."
"This was a really good effort from the team," the seasoned mentor added.
Jayden Gardner top-scored for New Taipei with 26 points as he starred once more for the crew, just like what he did in their breakthrough victory some 24 hours ago, a 107-99 decision against South China Athletic.
Harris finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists, while Jordan Tolbert supplied 10 points and 15 rebounds as he caused problems against his former team, whom he helped grab the gold medal last season.
The Kings shot 50-percent from the floor and hit a total of 11 triples although Hung was prouder of their defensive stand, in which they held a usually potent Broncos offense to just below 38-percent shooting.
Furthermore, they held Miller to an uncharacteristic 7 points on 8 attempts in 32 minutes albeit atop 9 assists, making the home team's gameplan of reducing the reigning BCL Asia-East MVP to a facilitator effective.
Still, the visiting crew gave a major threat down the stretch, coming back from a 71-57 deficit entering the fourth by tying things up at 79-all with 39.1 seconds to spare following an Azbayar Altangerel corner triple.
But then, Harris came through with the eventual game-winning split off a Jordy Tshimanga foul, and New Taipei would go on to force Miller to a tough shot which missed its target, thus sealing the hard-fought win.
"It was nice to see us perform our best defensive effort tonight," offered Gardner. "The key was getting Miller out of the game because he's a very good player ... we were just able to play really good team defense."
Tshimanga led the Broncos with 27 points and 12 rebounds in the loss that evened their record in Group B at 1-1. Barsbold Baatar Erdene backed him up with 14 points while Altangerel and Tushig Elbeg added 12 each.
Both squads will return to action this week to finish the Chinese Taipei leg of the 2026 caravan.
The two will take turns facing Taoyuan Pauian, with the Broncos the first to get a crack at the Pilots on Tuesday in a rematch of last year's championship bout. The Kings will have their shot on Saturday in New Taipei City.
FIBA