More than 3,300 fans packed the Taipei Sports Education College Arena on Friday night to see the Yulon Dinos beat the Taiwan Beer by 90 points to 78.
For three periods the game, which featured media darling Chen Hsin-an (
Then the Monster awoke to score three straight three-pointers in the third (18 points for the period) to erase the 20-point first-half deficit and actually take a 66-65 lead before the third buzzer. Lin's hot hands would cool off in the final period as a tightened Dino defense disrupted his shooting rhythm.
A few key misses by Lin, coupled with an excellent performance from the free-throw line by the Dinos, put the game out of reach for Taiwan Beer in the final minutes of the contest. The victory extended the Dino's winning streak to six and kept its undefeated record (6-0) intact, widening its lead over the BCC Mars to 2.5 games.
Sina 76, BCC 50
As expected against a porous Mars defense, Sina Lion center Huang Chuen-hsiung (黃春雄) had a field day inside the paint as the Lions' slaughtered the Mars on Saturday night.
The 2m veteran turned in his second double-double performance of the season by scoring 22 points and grabbing 12 hard-fought boards (both game-highs) en route to the game-MVP honor.
The usually high-powered Mars attack hit a bump in the second half, putting up only 19 points in its lowest-scoring match of the season. Converting only one of its 14 three-point attempts, the league's offense (averaging over 86 points a contest prior to this game) was never in sync against a stingy Lion defense that forced 22 turnovers.
The win ran the Lion's winning streak to three and evened their season mark to .500, following a miserable 0-3 start.
Bank of Taiwan 74, Jeoutai 81
Miscues from the charity stripe cost Bank of Taiwan the victory in Game 1 of Sunday's doubleheader. The poor 16-for-28 mark turned what would have been a solid win to a seven-point defeat, tying Bank of Taiwan with the Jeoutai Elephants for the last place spot in league standings.
As usual, the physical Bank of Taiwan squad crashed the boards on both ends of the floor, gaining a nine-rebound edge. However, the 25 turnovers proved to be insurmountable, despite a decent defensive effort that forced 24 Elephant turnovers.
The storyline of the game was the stellar performance by Elephant reserve forward Shang Wei-fang (尚韋帆), whose 13-point outing and fearless defensive play down low promptly bailed out fellow starters Wu Dai-hao (吳岱豪) and Ha Hsiao-yuan (哈孝遠), who were troubled by personal fouls throughout the game.
"His [Shang's] play tonight made us miss Yang Yu-ming (楊玉明) less, and that's great news for a one-man team like us," Elephant skipper Liu Hua-lin (劉華 林) said after his top offensive threat (Yang, averaging over 18 points per game) sat out the game due to an unspecified injury.
Taiwan Beer 61, Dacin 65
Game 2 on Sunday between Taiwan Beer and the Dacin Tigers showcased the top two scorers in league: Lin Chih-jeh of the Beer and Tien Lei (
The Tigers came out firing in the first half, opening up a 16-point half-time lead over the Monster-led Beer men, who may have been tired from their earlier loss against the Dinos. Never losing their composure, the Beer men would rally in the second half, reducing a 20-point Tiger lead to just three with 33 seconds left on the game clock.
That, however, was as close as Taiwan Beer would get, because guard Chen Shih-nian's (
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite