National Taiwan Normal University played its best game when it counted the most by erupting for 28 points in the third quarter to defeat previously unbeaten Mingdao University 80-66 in the fifth day of play at the annual University Basketball Association (UBA) tournament on Sunday to improve to 4-1.
The defending champs showed a young Mingdao squad who was really the boss, with great outings from Lin Yi-hui and Cheng Ren-wei, whose combined 34 points and 17 rebounds accounted for nearly half of National Taiwan Normal’s total offense.
The win not only put National Taiwan Normal in a three-way tie for first place at 4-1 — with the other previously unbeaten team, Fu Jen Catholic, losing to Taipei Physical Education College on the same day — but also gave National Taiwan Normal a tremendous psychological boost as it heads into today’s contest against National Kaohsiung Normal University.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Mingdao showed off its speed and talent in the early going, with Wu Min-hsien and Liu Cheng doing most of the damage on the scoreboard to lift the team to a 26-22 lead after the opening quarter.
But the more experienced National Taiwan Normal — fielding eight players from the Super Basketball League — returned the favor by keeping the game close until a 3-on-1 fast break ending with a thunderous slam dunk by Chou Bo-cheng late in the first half gave the defending champs their first lead of the contest at 40-39.
National Taiwan Normal pulled away in the third with a 28-13 run and led by as many as 22 points in the fourth en route to the impressive double-digit win.
“This [the loss] was a good lesson for us because it really taught our younger players playing one good half will not win you the game against good teams,” Mingdao skipper Chia Fan said after the game.
His team had won their four previous games by an average 13.3 points and their past 19 games dating back to last year.
TAIPEI PHYSICAL EDUCATION 85,
FU JEN CATHOLIC 78
Mingdao was not the only previously unbeaten team that stumbled on the day, with Fu Jen Catholic falling victims to a psyched-up Taipei Physical Education squad that had gone 0-4 but managed an 85-78 upset.
Several questionable calls in Taipei Physical Education’s favor may have affected Fu Jen’s mental game as it squandered a six-point first-half lead and was forced to play catch-up for the rest of the contest.
“Good defense and patience on offense really helped us win this game,” Taipei Physical Education head coach Chen Chung-cheng said after the game.
Other Results
• National Kaohsiung Normal University 73, Hsin Wu College 80
• National Taiwan College of Physical Education 62, Chinese Culture University 78
• Diwan University 92, National Donghwa University 84
• National Taiwan University of Arts 70, National Taiwan Sports University 78
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
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