Tien Lei's (田壘) 32-point night was more than plenty for the Dacin Tigers to send the BCC Mars to their second straight loss in as many games. The 20-year-old graduate of the National Taiwan Normal University helped jumpstart the Tigers' 2004 campaign with a personal-best seven three pointers on Friday night, only two shy of the league record set by Taiwan Beer's Lin "the Monster" Chih-jeh (林志傑) earlier in the season.
The 82-70 victory avenged the Tigers' 14-point loss to the Mars in their first meeting, leveling the series at one game apiece.
Scoring early and often, the Tigers took advantage of an injury-plagued Mars' squad that had three of its starters playing injured and a fourth recovering from the flu.
"The injuries and flu suffered by four of our starters really kept our rhythm off, not to mention the lack of physical conditioning," Mars head coach Chung Chih-mong (
Sina 76, Jeoutai 72
As expected, the Sina Lions took care of business against the Jeoutai Elephants in Game 1 on Saturday, winning 76-72.
The game had the makings of an Elephant slaughter early on, as the Lions took a commanding 23-9 lead in the first period. Then the Elephants made a scoring run of their own in the second period to take a 36-32 halftime lead.
Adding to their four-point lead, the Elephants made it 50-42 in the third quarter before the Lions awoke and knotted the game at 68-all with approximately four minutes left in the game.
With a minute left to play, Lion point man Chow Jung-san (周俊三) then drained a key fade-away jumper, following a Wu Dai-hao (吳岱豪) miss for the Elephants, to put the roaring Lions on top for good.
Taiwan Beer 68, Bank of Taiwan 64
Game 2 on Saturday between Taiwan Beer and Bank of Taiwan was also decided by four points, as the "beer men" snapped their two-game losing streak by holding off a fearless Bank of Taiwan rally in the final minute for the win.
The Monster was his usual self for Taiwan Beer in a relatively quiet 20-point effort, but the night belonged to off guard Chen Shih-nian (
Yulon 101, BCC 76
Setting a new record for single-game scoring with 41 points was Yulon Dinos' all-star forward Chen Hsin-an (
The Dinos also became the first team to break the century mark for the season as they showed no mercy against the still-hurting BCC Mars that was simply outmatched.
For those who must find a flaw in his game, Chen shot a meagerly 8-for-15 from the charity stripe, denying him any realistic chances of reaching 50.
At 7-0, the league-leading Dinos remained perfect atop the Super Basketball League as their opponents have yet to find a way to solve the reptilian curse.
Dacin 60, Sina 68
Not even Tien Lei's third straight double-double (19 points and 11 rebounds) could save the Tigers from the powerful paws of the mighty Lions in the weekend finale as the Tigers fell short by eight in the battle for the second-place spot in league.
The Lions opened the game with a 6-0 run and never trailed in the entire contest, building leads as large as 20 points. Playing in their second game of the weekend, both offenses showed signs of fatigue at times, with a combined total of 45 turnovers for the game.
In the end, the team that held the edge in the miscues' department (20 vs. 25) and got the win in a game that both clubs would rather forget.
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