NEW TAIPEI CITY (Chinese Taipei) - Taoyuan Pauian booked the first ticket to the BCL Asia-East 2025 Final 4 following a masterful 105-66 conquest of Bishrelt Metal at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium on Tuesday night.
Wasting no time asserting authority, the Pilots unloaded 13 unanswered points to start the match before finishing the first quarter with a huge 23-7 lead as the visitors from Mongolia struggled to find their footing.
The opposition tried to seek for answers but none came, and it didn't help that the home team refused to let up either en route to chalking up their fifth win in as many outings to clinch the no. 1 seed in Group A.
It's what enabled the P. League+ side to clinch the Semi-Finals trip and they did so still with a game to spare - a rematch versus their The League counterparts set on May 12 at the UG Arena in Ulaanbaatar.
"Happy with the win, happy to really ensure that we are going to be in the Final 4," head coach Iurgi Caminos said. "We have to play in the Finals of the P.League+ so it's really important to go with confidence."
Lu Chun-Hsiang starred in the triumph with a game-high 26 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in just under 21 minutes as the spitfire guard helped set the tone in the dominant victory,
The 27-year-old produced 10 of his points in the opening period as he presided over their aforementioned start, and he refrained from holding back to eventually submit his best scoring performance of the tilt by far.
His teammates came through as well to ensure that they'd remain unbeaten, with seasoned forward Julian Boyd delivering 23 points and 14 rebounds to register his third consecutive double-double of the tournament.
Alec Brown was as reliable as always, finishing with 18 points - spiked by a 4-of-7 clip from beyond the arc - alongside 13 rebounds and 3 blocks. Treveon Graham chipped in 11 points and 8 rebounds.
"I'm happy because this is a season where we are going to be in another Final - we had the EASL, and then the P.League+. And to be in the BCL Asia East Final 4 is something to be happy about," Caminos said.
Byron Wesley, on the other hand, had 19 points to lead an undermanned Bishrelt Metal. Batkhuyag Azzaya was the only other double-digit scorer for the crew with 12 points in the loss, which dropped their card to 1-2.
Following the result, Coach Evangelios Tsepelis and his charges can only vie for the no. 2 seed against the other competitors in the group, namely Pelita Jaya Basketball and the NS Matrix Deers.
Bishrelt Metal are definitely hungry to get back on track and will shoot for that when they host the fifth and final window of the Group Phase on May 11-15 in the Mongolian capital.
FIBA