NEW TAIPEI CITY (Chinese Taipei) - New Taipei leaned on Michael Efevberha to buck a slow start and beat Adroit, 105-65, to sustain their winning ways in the BCL Asia-East 2025, Tuesday night at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium.
The Kings saw themselves playing catch-up against the Singapore-NBL side early but the 40-year-old waxed hot and turned things around for good to make sure that they'd stay on top of Group B with a clean 2-0 slate.
Efevberha poured 15 of his 19 points in the first quarter alone, where he sparked a 13-3 scoring spree toward a 26-16 approaching the frame's last two minutes as they seized control of the game the rest of the way.
The veteran swingman shot 46.6-percent from the floor, including a trio of triples, and collected 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal on his way to netting an efficiency of 20 as he did all that without committing a turnover.
"Our roster is a little bit different for here, so we're getting some different guys in different rotations some minutes," said head coach Ryan Marchand. "I was really happy with the adjustments we made in the first and second half."
His early exploits, without a doubt, enabled the rest of the squad to get the spunk in crushing Adroit, with Su Pei Kai top-scoring for the squad with a game-high 23 points - his best showing of the tilt to date.
The 25-year-old shot 9-of-13 from the field, highlighted by three treys, one of which pushed their lead to its biggest at 43, 101-53, with less than two minutes left to play as the crew flat out dominated the contest.
"I didn't overthink," said Su. "So today, I was just trying to bring as much impact to the game as I can."
Wang Po Chih delivered big as well with 19 points and 5 rebounds, capping off his solid showing with a one-handed jam inside the game's final minute that left the bench and the home crowd in total jubilation.
Chris Johnson supplied 16 points and 8 rebounds, while Sani Sakakini finished with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds as the two reinforcements took turns in helping break the game wide open.
Johnson himself scored 10 in the second chapter alone to lead their charge toward a 49-36 lead at the break before the Palestinian star facilitated the strong third-quarter push to widen the gap even further.
New Taipei will look to conclude their three-game home stand with another victory when they take on the Ulaanbaatar Xac Broncos of Mongolia tomorrow, Wednesday, April 30, at 20:00 local time.
"The goal anytime we play is to win every game that we play," Marchand said. "You know, as Bobby Knight said, 'You can learn from a loss, but it's better to learn from a win.' For us, we can continue to get better."
Adroit, on the other hand, were led by former Singapore men's national squad teammates Leon Kwek and Ng Hanbin with 18 and 15 points, respectively, in indeed a rough start to their BCL Asia-East campaign.
FIBA