ASEAN Basketball League leaders Hong Kong Eastern Basketball Club had to endure a tough challenge imposed by the upset-hungry Formosa Dreamers to come out victorious, 93-91, Saturday afternoon at the Changhua Stadium in Taiwan.
The club team from the Far East solidified their hold of the top spot of the team standings as they improved to 12-2. The Taiwanese ball club, meanwhile, remained deadlast with a 1-15 card.
Reigning Heritage Import of the Week Christian Standhardinger only had 16 points on 4-of-14 from the field, but made up for it by going 8-of-12 from the line and with 10 rebounds. And he also made some big stops down the stretch.
The Filipino-German forward, who wasn’t even used in the majority of the fourth quarter, disrupted Formosa import Ronnie Aguilar’s pass that then led to a Marcus Elliott trey, which put HK up 92-88 with 1:04 remaining.
And after Elliott’s potential dagger missed with 11 ticks left and was hauled down by Formosa’ Cameron Forte, Standhardinger helped Elliott in double-teaming Forte to bar the Taiwanese from setting up a play and to seal the win.
Elliott top-scored for Hong Kong with 31 points alongside seven assists and six rebounds, while Tyler Lamb supplied 29 points with eight boards and three steals. Both reinforcements shot an identical 52 percent from the floor.
Forte had 31 points and 12 rebounds for Formosa, who surprised the visitors by controlling the tempo right from the get-go. The towering Aguilar, who kept the Dreamers close in the final minutes, had 20 markers and 13 caroms.
Local Sung Wei Wu, who made it 91-93 after nailing a booming triple with 32.1 seconds left, shined with 15 points spiked by four triples. Tian You Yang chipped in 10 markers, five dimes, and three rebounds.
It will be a tough weekend for Formosa as they have to play again tomorrow, Sunday, February 25 against Fil-American Joshua Munzon and a revamped Westports Malaysia Dragons still at the Changhua Stadium.
