Unlike the Yulon Dinos' series-opening 78-55 trouncing of the Sina Lions, Game 2 in the 2004 Super Basketball League Finals at the Taipei Sports Education College Arena on Saturday night went down the wire, requiring overtime before the Dinos shook off a tenacious Lion pursuit to claim the 78-76 victory.
Lions rookie reserve center Kao Li-ming (高立民), whose free throw with 29.4 seconds remaining forced the game into overtime, could not match his heroic action in the game's final seconds as he drove to the basket for an apparent two-point shot even though his team was down by three.
"I guess he [Kao] just didn't realize that a two-point play would not do in this case," Lions guard Luo Hsin-liang (
Dinos standout Chen Hsin-an (
Trailing by as many as 15 points in the first quarter, the Dinos awoke in the second quarter and took advantage of their quickness in the transition game to reduce the Lions lead to one (43-42) as they headed into halftime.
Both teams would lose the shooting touchin the second half, but the Dinos were able to add to their lead by four after several offesive rebounds by Tseng Wen-ding (
Luo Hsin-liang drained key shots in the fourth quarter to keep his team close, ending the contest with a game-high 31 points and 11 boards.
Troubled by four first-half fouls, Lions muscleman Liu Yi-shiang (
Tseng ended the game with 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
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