WAN CHAI (Hong Kong, China) - Taoyuan Pauian marked their BCL Asia-East 2026 debut with a come-from-behind 79-76 victory over South China Athletic Association before a packed Southorn Stadium on Thursday night.
Last year's runners-up fell behind by a decade during the third, but flipped the switch all of a sudden with a massive 21-4 response to finish the period owning a 68-61 lead, putting themselves ahead permanently.
They even led by 10 twice during the fourth but the home team rallied back and got within a field goal, but Will Artino and Justin Lu came through with crucial buckets to push their lead to 79-73 with 1:44 to go.
Artino himself would come up big on the defensive end shortly after the gap got trimmed to three, swatting away Dominic Gilbert's attempt inside with 34.7 seconds remaining which halted the opposition's momentum.
And their defense as a collective would enable the visiting side to walk away with the win, with Lu and the rest of the squad preventing their counterparts from generating any good look from beyond the arc.
"In the third quarter, the team showed character," head coach Iurgi Caminos said, "starting from defense to controlling the rebounds better, we reduced our turnovers. Once we had this, we had a chance to run."
"I think that comeback to the game helped us be more focused," he added.
Artino led Taoyuan Pauian with 22 points, 15 rebounds, and 7 assists as he helped the crew stay composed down the stretch after losing fellow star big man Alec Brown due to foul trouble entering the last four minutes.
Brown left the game with 17 points and 5 rebounds as he was among the three who finished in double figures in the triumph, the other being Setric Millner, Jr., who finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds.
Millner knocked down 4 of the team's 9 three-pointers, one of which gave them the 61-59 lead to cap a 14-2 scoring spree with 3:34 remaining in the third - the point where momentum shifted their way for good.
Lu added 9 points for the Pilots, who created an interesting race in Group B as 3 of the 4 participants have a win each, with the New Taipei Kings at the bottom of the standings after losing to South China last Tuesday.
Kyvon Davenport led SCAA with 17 points and 7 rebounds. Team captain Kelvin Tsang made 15 points, while Gilbert had 13 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 assists. Rodrigue Andela added 12 points and 12 rebounds.
The usual suspects did carry the load once more but Glen Yang was far from his usual with only 9 points, although he was responsible in cutting the gap to three with 1:09 to go with a big conversion from deep.
The Hong Kong A1 Division outfit went to him for the last shot in an attempt to send the game into overtime, but his trey only hit the backboard. Tsang did haul down the board, but time was no longer enough.
"The Pilots were a tough team to play. They have the size advantage against us, so we wanted to play uptempo. But we made 16 turnovers, and shot only 8 of our 17 free throws. These two killed us," Coach Lo Yi Ting said.
The Group B teams will now turn their attention to the caravan next's stop in Taipei. Click here for more.
FIBA