Print

Mail

wiki links

HPB: Probation hoops tourney to begin in Hualien today

"It will be an exciting five-day sequence for everyone involved."

Lin Yo-chih, head of the Probation Invitational Tournament

With high expectations and a large amount of support from the local community, this year's Hualien Probation Basketball Invitational Tournament will begin at the Hualien County Sports Complex in Hualien this morning with a matchup between Team Japan and the Philippines at 11:30am.

The annual basketball tournament, which draws hoop fans from all over the country, will feature five squads from Taiwan's Super Basketball League (SBL) this year and five foreign teams for the five-day competition.

Representing the SBL in the tourney are Taiwan Beer, the Yulon Dinos, the Dacin Tigers, dmedia (formerly the ETTV Antelopes) and Pure Youth (formerly the Azio Eagles), while the rest of the field will consist the Ryukyu Golden King of Japan's Basketball Japan League (BJ), the all-stars of the Philippines' National Basketball Conference (NBC), Kyung Hee University of South Korea, the Malaysian national team and Afghanistan's national team.

The teams will be divided into two groups with Taiwan Beer, the Dinos, Pure Youth, South Korea, and Malaysia in Group A and the Tigers, Japan, the Philippines, dmedia, and Team Afghanistan in Group B playing. There will be a round-robin preliminary round from today through Saturday -- before Sunday's medal round.

Due to the tight schedule, several teams will be playing two games on the same day during the preliminaries. After a day off, they will take on teams in the other group on Sunday to determine the final standings.

The games will be played at 11:30am, 1:30pm, 3:30pm, 5:30pm and 7:30pm, with the final two televised live.

Standing in the way for a repeat by the defending champs, the Dinos, are crowd favorites Taiwan Beer, and last year's second-place finisher from South Korea, while the Filipinos are also expected to make a run this year.

"It will be an exciting five-day sequence for everyone involved as the teams come in for a little change of scenery and a lot of fun," Lin Yo-chih, the head of the tournament, said at a press conference earlier this week.

With five of its seven squads participating in the tournament, the SBL views the six games that each team will play as a preseason exhibition round before the official exhibition games begin next month.
This story has been viewed 928 times.