Netting a team-high 24 points with nine rebounds and two steals, Kinmen Liquor newcomer Shawn “the Hawk” Hawkins made his presence felt right away as the team tripped up the Yulon Luxgens 80-77 at the Miaoli County Sports Complex on Sunday to win the season-opener.
After playing in South Korea in 2008, the US forward was no stranger to the Asian style of play as he took advantage of his size and quickness against a smaller Luxgens lineup while showing off his perimeter game with three three-pointers to lead the way for his new club.
Also starring was forward Cheng Ren-wei who racked up 24 points, including four three’s that forced the Yulon defense to play farther out than it would have liked. Kinmen Liquor did not have a good start in the game as it fell behind by as many as 10 in the opening minutes, but quickly found its groove with the Hawk coming off the bench to help erase the deficit before taking a surprising 43-38 lead at the half.
Neither team managed to hold leads larger the five in the second half with Hawkins and Cheng accounting for the bulk of the Kinmen Liquor offense while the Luxgens relied on all-star center Tseng Wen-ding to champion an attack that focused mainly inside the paint in an evenly fought battle.
With under 15 seconds remaining and trailing by three, the Luxgens committed a crucial turnover on their final possession that sealed the win for Kinmen Liquor.
Tseng would end up with a game-high 30 points despite the losing effort as his Luxgens fell to an even 1-1 record after winning their season-opener against Pure Youth Construction the night before.
TIGERS 79, PURE YOUTH 96
Pure Youth Construction shook off a tough loss to the Luxgens on Saturday with a 96-79 win over the defending champs Dacin Tigers in Miaoli on Sunday to garner its first victory of the season.
The win not only put the young builders in the win column in the opening weekend, but also nipped an eight-game losing skid against the Cats that dated back to early last year.
“It was a big win for us given our poor track record against them [the Luxgens],” Pure Youth head coach Hsu Jin-tseh said after the game.
LEOPARDS 78, BANK OF TAIWAN 73
Ou-Yang Jing-hen scored 31 points, Wu Yong-ren snatched a rare 11 rebounds in his 177cm frame and the Taiwan Mobile Leopards beat Bank of Taiwan 78-73 on Sunday for their first win of the year.
Skipper Cheng Chih-long challenged his top off-season acquisitions from two years ago to put behind last year’s dismal season and play as if there was nothing to lose and the duo responded by combining for 44 of their team’s 78 points to deliver the victory.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but