Shawn “the Hawk” Hawkins’ outstanding display of offensive power with 34.5 points per contest in the two games played last week earned the Kinmen Liquor forward this week’s Super Basketball League Player of the Week award.
The US import, who has had his share of problem with the standards of the local officiating crew, has shaken off some early-season blues by making the necessary adjustments to become one of the top offensive threats in the league.
His all-round game and courtside awareness is the main reason that Kinmen are No. 2 in the league standings, a half-game behind the top-ranked Dacin Tigers.
“After the few games we’ve played, I’ve decided not to let the way the refs call the game bother me and to keep my focus on the game,” the Hawk said after learning of his selection to the weekly honor.
Hawkins and the rest of Kinmen’s finest will have a chance to extend their winning streak to five straight in a physically demanding three-game lineup this weekend with tonight’s battle against Bank of Taiwan before tomorrow’s showdown versus the Tigers and Sunday’s weekend finale against Taiwan Beer.
Kinmen Liquor should be able to rest many of its starters in what is expected to be an easy victory against the Bankers, who have continued to struggle in search of a winning formula with a 1-7 record for the year. With a rested starting lineup, Kinmen should be able to put up a good fight against the cats in a physical match that features the Hawk and fellow US big man Byron Allen of the Tigers.
Sunday’s highly anticipated battle against the Beer Crew will also be a good test for the distillers before the three-week Lunar New Year’s break as they match up against Taiwan Beer’s twin-tower attack, which showcases Delvin Thomas and Wu Dai-hao.
TONIGHT’S GAMES
On the menu for tonight’s hoop action besides the Kinmen Liquor-Bank of Taiwan confrontation at the Hsinchu Municipal Gymnasium at 8pm will be the game between the Yulon Luxgens and the Taiwan Mobile Leopards.
Anything other than a big “W” will be considered unacceptable for Luxgens coach Chang Hsueh-lei, since his troops have come up empty in their last three in a row to set a new losing skid team record for the three-time champs.
The game will mark the Taiwan debut for Leopards newcomer Alexus Foyle, who joined the team last week to replace the departed Antonio Grant. Grant had not met the expectations of skipper Cheng Chih-long in the seven games he played thus far with per-games averages of 11.7 points and 8.9 rebounds and was waived by the team last week.
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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
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