Holding a potent Taiwan Beer offense to six measly points in the fourth quarter, the Dacin Tigers broke away from an otherwise close battle to win Game 2 of the playoff series 84-70 at the Taipei County Gymnasium in Sinjhuang last night.
The win not only evened the best-of-five series at one game apiece, but also breathed new signs of life into the defending champs, who looked a bit intimidated the night before in a series-opening loss to the Brew Crew.
Taiwan Beer began Round 2 in high gear with a quick 11-4 lead early in the first.
However, the Tigers would answer with an 14-0 run of their own to actually lead it 23-33 after the first quarter of play. Neither club managed to pull away in an evenly fought second quarter that led to a 40-all tie at the half with Lin “the Beast” Chih-jeh leading the men in the green uniform with 11 first-half points and Byron Allen doing the same for the cats.
Dacin would skid ahead by as many as a dozen in the third quarter with Lin Yi-hui and Yueh Ying-li nailing several jumpers from the perimeter before the Brew Crew answered with a 7-2 run late in the quarter, highlighted by Chen Shih-nian’s buzzer-beating three to keep the Tigers’ lead at a reasonable six (70-64).
The six-point advantage proved sufficient for the Cats as they upped their defensive effort a notch by keeping the Beast scoreless for the entire second half, while Tien Lei and Chang Chih-fong picked up the scoring slack to run away with a convincing win the end.
Four different players scored in double-digits for the victorious Tigers, led by Allen and Tien’s game-high 17 points each.
The two squads will do battle once more this afternoon at 5pm in the all-important Game 3, where the winner will be one victory away from clinching the series.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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