Chen "Airman" Hsin-an's three-point play the old fashion way (a two-point basket with a foul) and his no-look pass that led to another easy score by Tseng Wen-ding late in the game powered the Yulon Dinos past the Dacin Tigers in a 92-84 victory on Sunday to clinch Taiwan's Super Basketball League (SBL) title.
Blue ribbons flying off the spectator stands immediately covered a good part of the floor at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium as the Dinos bench stormed the court to celebrate their second straight championship in another 3-0 sweep in the best-of-five-game series.
In addition to the championship trophy, the Dinos will receive NT$1 million in prize money as well as a ring for each member of the team.
PHOTO: SBL
The Dinos won all five of their postseason games, extending their postseason winning streak to nine in a row (including last season).
Even with all-star Chen Hsin-an playing in the American Basketball Association for the first five months of the SBL season, the Dinos were able to prevail.
"It was truly a remarkable year for us," Dinos coach Lee Yun-huan said after the gamed. "Despite a slow start because of [Chen] Hsin-an's absence, we were able to adjust quickly and work through all adversities for the repeat. It was a great effort all around for the entire organization."
The game began with Dinos sinking everything under the sun in a thunderous 24-18 first quarter that featured three three-pointers by guard Lee Hsueh-lin.
The Tigers answered by tying the game at 37-37 midway through the second quarter behind an outstanding effort by rookie forward Chen Tzu-wei.
Chen Hsin-an gave the Dinos the lead for good with three three-pointers to close out the half at 46-43.
Neither team managed to take advantage of their opponents' mistakes in an error-filled third quarter, but the Tigers used a 9-2 run early in the fourth quarter to cut their deficit to two points.
With the momentum seemingly swinging the Tigers' way, Chen Hsin-an sparked some late-game magic, boosting the Dinos' cushion back to double-digits with under a minute to play in the game.
"Hats off to the Dinos," Tigers coach Liu Jia-fa said. "They clearly played their best basketball when it mattered the most. That's something our guys will have to learn before we can become a championship-caliber team."
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier