Behind a stellar effort by premier forward Tien Lei, Taiwan Team A defeated Japan in a 77-74 final in Jones Cup play at the Taipei County Sinjhuang Gymnasium on Saturday night to jumpstart the nine-day tournament with a bang.
The team icon for the Dacin Tigers, who had been hampered by injuries on and off for the past two seasons, played to his three-time SBL MVP form by netting a game-high 21 points with eight boards to lead the home hosts past their Japanese nemeses to avenge a tough loss at the East Asia Basketball Championship in Aichi, Japan, last month.
Also starring for the Taiwanese was forward Yang Jing-min (Taiwan Beer), whose 17 points on the night, including the final six points of the game for his team, helped turn back an all-out rally by Japan that cut a 19-point lead by the Taiwanese to just one in the closing minutes of the contest.
TAIWAN TEAM B 61, LEBANON 93
Team B for Taiwan was no match for the Lebanese earlier on Saturday as they dropped a 93-61 decision to the visitors.
The Taiwanese squad was never comfortable against Lebanon, which held a near-8cm average team height advantage as they shot a poor 22-for-74 from the field, including a miserable 4-for-30 from behind the three-point line.
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Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with