The Sina Lions secured a second-seed berth in the upcoming postseason with an 82-75 victory over Bank of Taiwan to hit off the final weekend of regular season actions.
Coach Hu Tsai-lin (
The move nearly backfired because the Bank of Taiwan would not go away quietly as the outfit fought back hard to reduce a 20-point deficit to just five points with one minute left to play.
Bank's refusal to quit not only secured them a moral victory, it drew the Lion starting lineup onto the court to finish the final minute of the contest.
Elephants 97, Taiwan Beer 77
With their backs against the wall in a must-win situation, the Jeoutai Elephants stunned Taiwan Beer in an offense explosion that just missed the century mark by three points on Saturday afternoon.
In order to make it into the postseason, the Elephants needed to win and pray for a Mars loss against the Dacin Tigers on Sunday night.
And the Elephants did their part by putting 51 points on the board in the first half, en route to the 20-point blowout.
Led by sharpshooter Yang Yu-ming's (
As for the Beer men, their future looks bright as the young team will gel around team leader Lin "the Monster" Chih-jeh (
Tigers 85, Dinos 77
The Tigers showed that they can dance with the best in their trouncing of the league-leading Yulon Dinos on Saturday night. The win secured the Tigers a third-seed berth and a date with the Lions in round one of the playoffs.
All-star forward Tien Lei (
Mars 90, Lions 79
The Elephants' victory on Saturday reduced the Mars' season to a one-game struggle; a win would earn them a ticket into the postseason as the fourth-seed contender, while a loss would send them packing.
The conservative Mars' offense went to work inside against the aging Lion frontcourt by feeding big men Lee Chi-yi (
Even though the Lions were able to outscore the Mars in the second half by eight points, it was nowhere near enough to overcome the deficit as they settled for the 11-point loss.
Bank of Taiwan 91, Taiwan Beer 73
The regular season finale between Bank of Taiwan and Taiwan Beer on Sunday had no bearing on the postseason for either team, but was a delight to watch because Bank of Taiwan played their best offensive game of the season by far in scoring 91 points to beat the Beer men.
Reserve guard Hsu Hao-cheng (許皓程) led the financial wizards with 27 points in his first 40-minute effort as five different Bank of Taiwan players scored 10 points or more for the final game of the season.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB