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SBL: Sanders wins SBL Player of Week

Propelling his club back onto the winning track with a terrific weekend of play, dmedia Numen's Jonathan Sanders was selected as the Super Basketball League's Player of the Week for the second time this season.

The 200cm California native who played point guard in the US through his college career, but was forced to play in the frontcourt in Taiwan for his size and rebounding skill, netted 52 points, 35 rebounds, seven assists, and four steals and blocked shots over a two-game stretch for the Numen, redefining the standards for an all-purpose player.

It was Sanders' incredible all-around game that brought the Numen back to a share of the No. 2 spot in the standings with Taiwan Beer from the fourth spot of a week ago as he had shown on more than one occasion his ability to take control of a game single-handedly.

His double-20 effort (21 points and 21 rebound) in the game against the Dacin Tigers last Friday was a case in point as Sanders scored the Numen's first dozen points to show how indispensable he is to his team.

"All the individual achievements are meaningless if the team doesn't win at the end of the day," Sanders said after learning about his second selection to the weekly honor.

Sanders and his dmedia teammates will have an excellent chance to extend their winning streak to four straight with a pair of relatively easy games this weekend, starting with tomorrow's contest against a 2-9 Pure Youth Constructions squad before finishing out the week with a match versus Bank of Taiwan (1-10) on Sunday afternoon at the Taipei County Sports Complex.

Both games are expected to be a physical since things got a bid dicey between the Numen and Pure Youth late in the game the last time they met with seven players fouled out before dmedia ran away with a win in overtime.

As for the game against the bankers, who finally won their first game of the season last week against the Taiwan Mobile Leopards, dmedia should not take the game lightly since the bankers are a much better team than their dead-last 1-10 record would indicate.

Tonight's Games

Kicking off this week's play with a pair of marquis matches at the Taipei County Sports Complex will be the contest between Taiwan Beer and the Bank of Taiwan at 6pm and a tough task for the Leopards against the undefeated Yulon Dinos at 8pm.

It will be an interesting game for the beer crew since they will be playing without skipper Yen Jia-hua who will begin serving a ten-game suspension for assaulting a referee after the game following a tough Taiwan Beer loss to the Dinos last Sunday.

While the off-court drama has cost Taiwan Beer some unwanted negative publicity, the outcome of this game should not be affected since Taiwan Beer has simply too much talent and size for the bankers to try to pull off another upset after Sunday's win against the Leopards.

As for the Dinos-Leopards contest, it will be a special game for the Dinos as they look to shatter the league mark for longest winning streak when they try for win number 13 of the season.
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