Rallying from as much as a dozen down, Bank of Taiwan erupted for 35 points in the fourth quarter to top Pure Youth Construction 90-87 at the Miaoli County Sports Complex on Sunday evening for their first win of the season.
Power forward Hsu Chih-chiang was virtually unstoppable despite suffering from an injured ankle in the decisive fourth, netting 13 of the Bankers’ 35 to lead his team to the promise land.
Fellow frontcourt mate Lin “Killer Bee” Chuin-fong also rose to the occasion for the Bankers with 22 points on the night, including five straight free throws in the closing minutes of the contest to help his team seal the win.
PHOTO: HSU CHUAN-HIEN, TAIPEI TIMES
The Bankers found themselves behind the eight ball for the fourth straight game, trailing the builders 20-30 after a dismal first quarter.
But they fought back to cut Pure Youth’s lead to a lone point at the half before running into some trouble in the third before staging their fierce comeback in the fourth.
“That was a huge win for us, especially after the bad start we’ve had,” Hsu said after the game.
With Lunar New Year around the corner, his banking crew will have nearly three weeks off.
LEOPARDS 62, TIGERS 70
The Dacin Tigers took care of business against the Taiwan Mobile Leopards in the weekend finale at Miaoli.
They tamed the Leopards in a 70-62 defensive struggle to remain unbeaten at 4-0.
The highly anticipated showdown between two foreign players, Byron Allen of the Tigers and Mario Boggan of the Leopards, was near even as the former banged his way against the opposition for a dozen points and seven rebounds while the latter netted 10 points with five boards for his new club.
Neither team managed to pull more than five points ahead throughout the first three quarters, with the leader flip-flopping back and forth.
But with the game on the line, it was the Tigers’ Tien Lei who took charge in the final quarter with several clutch baskets to deliver the big victory for his team. The former league MVP left the game with 20 points and eight rebounds to complement lead scorer Chang Chih-fong’s 24.
KINMEN LIQUOR 82, LUXGENS 92
Kinmen Liquor proved no match for the Yulon Luxgens (formerly the Dinos) in the afternoon game on Sunday as it succumbed to a vicious Luxgens attack to lose by 10 in a 92-82 final.
All-star Tseng Wen-ding played his best game in nearly two seasons by muscling his way inside the paint against a smaller Kinmen Liquor interior defense for a game-high 29 points.
Meanwhile, perimeter threat Chou Shih-yuan continued his red-hot shooting by nailing 12-of-19 from the field for 25 points to push his three-game scoring total to a team-best 59 points.
Thirty-six total fouls by Kinmen Liquor would send the Luxgens to the foul line 46 times, with 34 successful conversions.
Foul trouble on the part of Kinmen Liquor ended up benching three of their players, setting their already shorthanded defense further back against a superior Yulon attack.
“I wonder about the consistency of the referees’ whistles in the game,” Kinmen Liquor center Shang Wei-fan said after his team outfouled the Luxgens by a 36-18 margin.
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
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB