Yitong Trust wins President Cup

Yitong Trust defeated NTCPE (National Taiwan College of Physical Education) 2-0 in the best-of-three final series and won its first President Cup champion in team history. Kuo-kwang Power beat Richway Tech 2-1 in the best-of-three 3rd-place series.

President Cup was divided into two divisions – Division I and II – before the formation of SBL (Super Basketball League). Currently there’s only one division in the President Cup.

President Cup Preliminary Round Standings:
1. Yitong Trust 6-1
2. NTCPE 5-2
3. Kuo-kwang Power 5-2
4. Richway Tech 4-3
5. TNIT 4-3
6. Tsaishin Alumni 2-5
7. Shinwu 2-5
8. Jin-jin Design 0-7

Top four teams meet in the best-of-three playoff series, where Yitong faces NTCPE in the finals and Kuo-kwang Power meets Richway Tech in the 3rd-place series.

New Taiwanese basketball competition format

The current Taiwanese basketball competition format that has been going on for years will have a dramatic change after the launch of SBL.

Since the CBA folded, teams went back to join A-League (Amateur League). There are only two stages – President Cup and A-League regular season – for them to play every year. Men’s teams are divided into two divisions – Div-I and Div-II.

Things will look a little bit different this year. Seven top teams form the new Super Basketball League. That means there will be no more Div-I in A-League. From now on A-League will be a one-division league. All men’s and women’s teams which didn’t join SBL will still play under the old A-League format.

2003 President Cup tip-offs on Nov.2

CTBA announced the 2003 President Cup schedule Monday. Eight men’s teams and five women’s teams will participate in the tournament from Nov. 2 to Dec. 4.

With the formation of the Super Basketball League, the remaining teams will still compete in both annual CTBA-sanctioned events – the President Cup and the A-League Regular Season.

Men’s Competition
Teams (8): National Taiwan College of Physical Education (NTCPE), Yitong Trust, Kuo-kwang Power, Jui-tsai Technology, Shingwu-Chiaotai, Jin-jin Design, Tung-nan Institute of Technology (TIT), Tsai-shin Alumni
Time: Nov. 24 – Dec. 4
Venue: Taipei Municipal Stadium
Format: Single round-robin preliminary games. Top four teams advance to the playoffs, with top two teams go for championship in a best-of-three series. No.3 and No.4 teams play for third-place also in a best-of-three series.

Women’s Competition
Teams (5): Kuo-tai Life, Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Power, Taiyuan, Yadong
Time: Nov. 2 – Nov. 23
Venue: Taipei Municipal Stadium
Format: Double round-robin preliminary games. Top four teams advance to the playoffs, with top two teams go for championship in a best-of-three series. No.3 and No.4 teams play for third-place also in a best-of-three series.

Yulon wins second straight President Cup title

Chen Hsin-an had 26 points and 6 rebounds as Yulon beat Dacin, 83-74, in Game 3 of the President Cup Finals tonight, winning the best-of-three series 2-1 and repeat as champion.

In the deciding game, Yulon showed it’s poise and experience. A 12-2 run in the third quarter opened up the game for Yulon, who increased the lead to 14 and led as many as 17 points.

Although Tien Lei had another brilliant game (27 points and 14 rebounds), Dacin never regrouped to stage a comeback rally after trailing by six in halftime. They were hurt by too many turnovers and never threatened Yulon thereafter.

Dacin lost to Yulon in the finals for the second time, after bowing out 0-3 in the A-League Finals last year, when they lost by 18 points PER game. But they do show a lot of improvement compared to last year and look promising in April’s A-League regular season, with No.1 high school bigman Wu Dai-hao expected to join the team.

Yulon has now won four straight A-League champions, including 2003 President Cup, 2002 A-League regular season, 2002 President Cup and 2001 A-League regular season. You can see a “mini-dynasty” right there. Of course, for a team that has seven players on the national team roster, a mini-dynasty is not something to brag about.

With President Cup completed just before the Chinese New Year, teams are looking forward to April’s A-League regular season. The last two teams – No.7 Yitong and No.8 Military – will have to play the Division II’s top two teams, Jin-jin Design and NTCPE(National Taiwan College of Physical Education) in a single round-robin series to fight for two Division I seeds.

**Results
Finals(Yulon wins series 2-1)
Game 3: Yulon 83-74 Dacin(Halftime 41-35)
Yulon – Chen Hsin-an 26p+6rb+3a, Chen Chih-chun 16p, Chou Hong-yu 12p+9rb
Dacin – Tien Lei 27p+14rb, Lee Fong-yong 18p

**Final Standings
1. Yulon Dinos, 2. Dacin Construction, 3. BCC Mars, 4. Jutai Technology, 5. Bank of Taiwan, 6. Taiwan Beer, 7. Yitong Trust, 8. Military

President Cup – Tien Lei lifts Dacin over Yulon

Twenty minutes from losing the first A-League title in team history, Dacin refused to quit. Tien Lei had 32 points, 14 rebounds to lead Dacin storm back from a 13-point halftime deficit and upset Yulon, 82-77. Dacin tied the President Cup Finals at 1-1. On the second to last day of Chinese lunar year tomorrow, the President Cup title is on the line.

Dacin dug themselves a big hole, firing cluelessly from the outside and quickly trailed by double-digit before halftime. It seemed the President Cup title is Yulon’s to lose coming to the fianl 20 minutes in the game.

Dacin head coach Liu Jia-fa turned to his spread offense and asked his players to be more patient, looking for the best open shot. Tien Lei and little guard Cheng Chan-jun took advantage of their speed and penetration, also combined for three back-breaking three-pointers in the third quarter. Dacin wasted no time to pull ahead, 60-56, after a 32-16 third quarter.

With center Tsun Wen-din fouling out in closing minutes, Dacin led as many as 10 points. Chen Hsin-an stepped up and kept the game close by scoring five straight points, including an NBA-range three-pointer. But Chang Chi-feng’s three-pointer with less than a minute to go increased Dacin’s lead to 5 points. After Chou Shih-yuan missed his three, Yulon had no chance.

In the third-place series, Mars had five players in double-digit to beat Jutai 77-70 and wrapped up the series with a 2-0 win.

**Results
Finals(Series tied 1-1)
Game 2: Dacin 82-77 Yulon(Half 27-40)
Dacin – Ten Lei 32p(10-20 FG)+14rb+4s, Chang Chi-feng 17p+6rb, Lee Fong-yong 15p, Cheng CHan-jun 12p+6rb
Yulon – Chen Chih-chun 19p(7-9 FG)+5s, Chen Hsin-an 15p+5rb+4a

3rd-place Series(Mars win 2-0)
Game 2: Mars77-70 Jutai(Half 35-35)
Mars – Lin Jia-huang 17p, Yang Che-yi 14p, Cheng An-jay 14p, Lee Chi-yi 12p+12rb+5a
Jutai – Lin Che-li 15p, Yang Yu-ming 11p+6rb+4a, Ha Hsiao-yuan 11p, Hsu Tse-shin 11p

President Cup – Kuo-tai Life completes four-peat

Chunghwa Telecom overcame a 15-point deficit in the last five minutes to upset Kuo-tai Life, 76-74, tonight in the last game of the women’s competition. Chunghwa Telecom got themselves an inspiring win but still finished runner-up to Kuo-tai Life, who won their fourth straight President Cup title, because they lost to Kuo-tai by 10(and won by only 2 tonight) in the first-leg.

It’s really an unbelievable win for Chunghwa Telecom, when you think about they were dominated on the boards 29-49 and trailed by 15 points with only five minutes remaining. However, their defense made a difference. A couple of Kuo-tai’s turnovers and missed shots led Chunghwa Telecom back into the game. With score tied at 74-74, 183cm PF Chiang Feng-jun missed two free-throws with 11.4 seconds remaining. On the other end, Telecom’s Chiang Yi-lian made both of her free-throws with 6.1 seconds left and iced the game.

**Results
Taiwan Powers 61-59 Tai-yuan
Chunghwa Telecom 76-74 Kuo-tai

**Complete Standings

Kuo-tai 4-0
Chunghwa Telecom 3-1
Tai-yuan 2-2
Taiwan Powers 1-3
Ya-dong 0-4

Chunghwa Telecom 4-0
Kuo-tai 3-1
Taiwan Powers 2-2
Tai-yuan 1-3
Ya-dong 0-4

1. Kuo-tai 7-1
2. Chunghwa Telecom 7-1
3. Tai-yuan 3-5
4. Taiwan Powers 3-5
5. Ya-dong 0-8

President Cup – Tsun can’t miss, Yulon leads 1-0

The hyped “Chen Hsin-an vs. Tien Lei” never became a reality. 204cm C Tsun Wen-din proved why he is the starting center on the national team by making 12 of 15 shots, scoring 26 points in the Game 1 of the President Finals tonight. Tsun, only 19 years-old, led Yulon to a 75-65 victory and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series.

Tsun had a night when he just couldn’t miss. He scored on mid-range jumpers, putbacks, dunks and fadeaway jumpshots. In addition to his hothand, Tsun had 5 steals and a block. Moreover, it’s his defense on Tien Lei helped Yulon set the tone early, jumping to a 29-13 lead after the first quarter.

Surrounded by Tsun all night, Tien had only 16 points and 9 boards on 3-12 shooting. Chen Hsin-an also had a quiet game, collecting 12 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists before fouling out of the game with 5 minutes remaining.

Yulon quickly jumped to double-digit lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Dacin cut the deficit down to less than 10 a couple of times with the help of PG Huang Chih-chun’s three-pointers. But they rushed their shots, missed some easy ones, and was quickly put away.

Yulon head coach Chien Yi-fei was satified with Yulon’s teamwork. “It’s our defense wins the game for us. And it’s a team effort. I don’t care how many points you score. You have to be able to defend to be my players.” As for Tsun, “Sky’s the limit for him. This kid still has a lot of room for improvement.”

Yulon will look to finish the series tomorrow. Chien sais they don’t want to have their back against the wall by losing Game 2 and have to play a deciding Game 3.

In the other series, Mars routed Jutai 89-63 to take a 1-0 lead in the third-place series.

**Results
Finals
Game 1: Yulon 75-65 Dacin(Half 45-28)
Yulon – Tsun Wen-din 26p(12-15 FG)+5rb+5s+1blk, Chen Hsin-an 12p(5-11 FG)+6rb+6a, Chou Hong-yu 11p, Chen Chih-chun 10p
Dacin – Huang Chih-chun 24p(8-13 FG, 5-8 3PT)+3a, Tien Lei 16p(3-12 FG)+9rb+4a+3blk, Lee Fong-yong 9p+9rb

3rd-place series
Game 1: Mars 89-63 Jutai(Half 50-33)
Mars – Lin Jen-da 25p(9-14 FG, 5-6 3PT), Chen Huei 16p+7a, Lee Chi-yi 14p+8rb+6a, Yang She-yi 12p, Cheng An-jay 10p+10rb
Jutai – Hu Yu-wei 14p, Chang Ya-tang 11p, Ha Hsiao-yuan 9p+10rb, Yang Yu-ming 9p

President Cup – Chen Hsin-an’s 29 lead Yulon to the Finals

All Chen Hsin-an needed was a three-point line and a free-throw line, because he could make nothing in between last night.

Chen Hsin-an had 29 points and 11 rebounds as Yulon beat Mars, 76-63, to clinch the final ticket to the Final series. Still, it was a bizarre experience for Chen, who made 5 of 8 from three-point country, 14 for 18 from the charity stripe but missed all 13 of his two-point attempts.

Always double-teamed by Mars defenders, Chen’s shot couldn’t find the basket in the first half. He entered the lockerroom without a field goal in halftime, when Yulon trailed 34-36. But Chen’s five three-pointers in the second half finally opened up the game for Yulon, who outscored Mars 42-27 in the last two periods.

Chen became Yulon’s only offensive option in an ugly game where no team can find the basket. Yulon only shot .370(23-62) and Mars were even more miserable at .303(20-66). Mars successfually controled Chen and the tempo in the first half but was plagued by their frontline foul trouble. Nothing went right for them in the second half.

Yulon will take on Dacin in the best-of-three Final series starting tomorrow. Mars will face Jutai in the other best-of-three consolation series.

**Results
Yulon 76-63 Mars(Yulon – Chen Hsin-an 29p+11rb, Chen Chih-chun 10p+4s, Chou Hong-yu 9p ; Mars – Lai Kuo-hong 14p, Yang Che-yi 12p, Lin Jia-huang 11p)

**Final Preliminary Round Standings
Dacin 7-0
Yulon 6-1
Mars 4-3
Jutai 4-3
BOT3-4
Taiwan Beer 2-5
Yi-tong 2-5
Military 0-7

Women’s competition: Second Leg
**Results
Kuo-tai 77-61 Ya-dong
Chunghwa Telecom 77-67 Taiwan Powers

**Standings
Kuo-tai 3-0
Chunghwa Telecom 3-0
Tai-yuan 1-2
Taiwan Powers 1-2
Ya-dong 0-4