Previously undefeated Taiwan Beer fell short by one to China’s Liaoning Pan Pan in the title game, dropping an 82-81 heartbreaker at the Hualien County Sports Complex last night to end this year’s Hualien Probation Cup on a down note.
Doug Creighton’s last-second attempt that would have won it for the home team was a tad off and that was the difference in an otherwise evenly fought contest that saw the two teams trade leads from the opening quarter all the way to the end.
The win not only gave Pan Pan the bragging rights of keeping the Probation Cup for a year, but also exposed some apparent weaknesses in the Brew Crew’s ability to handle the pressure in a close game.
“We still have a lot of work to do on our mental game,” Taiwan Beer head coach Yen Jia-hua said after the game.
His team came within a shot of keeping the championship trophy in Taiwan.
Newcomer Emanuel Jones continued to impress with his new team with 26 points to go along with Creighton’s game-high 37 to account for the bulk of Taiwan Beer’s offense.
As for Pan Pan, center Han Deh-chun made the most of his 2.15m frame by netting a team-best 33 points to lead the victors in total scoring.
TIGERS 92, LUXGENS 88
In the battle for the third-place finish, the Dacin Tigers needed a last-second three-pointer from Luo Yu-chuin to force a tie 76-76 tie in regulation, before topping the Yulon Luxgens 92-88 in overtime in an emotional comeback.
Yulon led by as many as 13 points early in the fourth quarter, but fell victim to an 18-4 run by the Tigers that turned the tide in the final five minutes of regulation as they lost the game in disheartening fashion.
Luo ended up with 17 points in the game, second only to newcomer Vincent James’ team-high 23 for the Cats, while the Luxgens Chou Shih-yuan led all scorers with 31 points in a losing effort that forced his team to settle for a fourth-place finish.
BANK OF TAIWAN 73, SICHUAN 62
Bank of Taiwan continued their red-hot shooting form following an upset win over the Dacin Tigers on Saturday with a 73-62 win over China’s Sichuan Jin Qiang early yesterday afternoon to close out the tournament with a fifth-place finish.
Hsu Chih-chiang played the head Banker on the day with his team-high 19 points.
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
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