Shawn “the Hawk” Hawkins scored a game-high 28 points with 18 rebounds, Lin Chih-long added another dozen, including the game-winning basket, and Kinmen Liquor defeated Pure Youth Construction 79-74 at the Miaoli County Sports Complex on Saturday evening.
It was the third straight game in which the US import scored at least 20 points, steadily making the Hawk one of the most dominating players in the league through the first three weeks of play.
The win was Kinmen Liquor’s third in a row, improving its record to a surprising 4-1.
In a contest that featured a showdown between a pair of foreign greats — the Hawk for Kinmen Liquor and the Builders’ Jonathan Sanders — Kinmen Liquor took an early 19-13 lead after one quarter of play before the Builders halved the gap to trail Kinmen Liquor 39-36.
Pure Youth pulled within one to start the final quarter, but the Hawk made sure his team didn’t relinquish its lead as he poured in 13 of Kinmen Liquor’s final 21 points.
Tigers 67, Luxgens 62
The Yulon Luxgens rode on the coattail of a brilliant start by Tseng Wen-ding through the first four games of the year to tally a surprising 3-1 record. But their fortune came to an end on Saturday when the all-star center was hampered by foul trouble that limited him to only 28 minutes of action (compared with his 36 minute average heading into the game) in a tough 67-62 loss to the Cats.
The Luxgens didn’t have scoring threat Lee Hsueh-lin for the game because of an injury sustained the week before, leaving the bulk of the scoring burden to Tseng and veteran point guard Chen Chih-chung.
Taiwan Beer 71, Leopards 67
Taiwan Beer held the Taiwan Mobile Leopards to a season-low eight points in the first quarter and won the game 71-67 on Saturday afternoon to end a two-game losing skid.
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