Jonathan Sanders' exceptional all-around game, including a rare triple-double performance that led his dmedia Numen to a huge win over Taiwan Beer last Sunday, landed the American forward this week's SBL Player of the Week honor.
The former Videoland Hunters (Taiwan Mobile Leopards) standout, who joined the Numen prior to the start of this season, showed that his second-place finish in last season's Most Valuable Player voting was no fluke as he tallied 26 points, 32 rebounds, 10 assists and two steals to lead the Numen to a perfect 2-0 weekend.
The two wins over the Leopards and the beer crew also extended dmedia's winning streak to four straight to give them a 5-1 mark heading into this week's play.
"It's very nice to be able to win the award and I would like to acknowledge my teammates for their support because I could never do it alone," Sanders said after learning the result of this week's voting.
His incredible 17 points, 16 rebounds, and 17 assists in the game versus Taiwan Beer was only the second-ever triple-double effort in league history.
Sanders and his dmedia buddies face three tough matches this weekend, starting with tonight's showdown against the top-ranked Yulon Dinos before tomorrow's rematch with a pumped-up Taiwan Beer squad and Sunday's contest against the Leopards, all at the Taipei County Sports Complex in Sinjhuang.
While revenge will play a role when the Numen take on the Dinos tonight, since it was the Dinos who dealt the Numen their only loss of the season so far, their ability to neutralize the inside presence of Dinos center Tseng Wen-ding without running into foul trouble will likely determine the outcome of the game.
Should the Dinos be able to fire at will from close range against the Numen defense, it will not matter how many points and rebounds Sanders can get on the night.
Kicking off this week's play is the contest between the Dacin Tigers and Bank of Taiwan at the Taipei County Sports Complex this evening, where the cats will be looking to bounce back from a tough loss to the Dinos last Saturday
The officials may be under scrutiny in this game since there were several questionable calls against the bankers in the meeting between the two teams on Dec. 8.
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