Emmanuel Jones scored 31 points and Chen Shih-nian chipped in another 17 as Taiwan Beer went on to defeat the Dacin Tigers 88-82 at the Kaohsiung Fengshan Gymnasium last night for their second win in as many days.
The win not only gave the Brew Crew a perfect 2-0 record for the long weekend, but also clinched their season series against the Cats as they improved to 3-1 in head-to-head competition with one more match remaining.
“His [Jones] great attitude really rubs off on the other players on the team,” Chen said after the game.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
Their timely surge bailed out a sub-par effort by a slumping Yang Jing-min and Cheng Ren-wei, whose six combined points were well short of their season average of 24.
Dacin opened with a 9-0 run against the top squad in the league, with Alexus Foyle and Hsu “the Fool” Hao-cheng leading the way, but the Brew Crew soon found their range after being kept off the board for almost three minutes by going on a 11-2 run to tie the game at 11-11.
Three-pointers by Chou Tzu-hua and Ho Sho-cheng in what ended up being a 13-5 run helped the men in green take a 32-25 lead midway through the second, before they added to the lead by three to close out the first half leading 49-39.
Taiwan Beer led by as many as a dozen points early in the third, before the Tigers answered with a 12-2 run to fall within two points midway through the period.
That was as close as the Tigers got, with Jones and Chen doing as they pleased to slowly increase the lead back to a double digits.
Even though the Tigers managed to make one last rally to make it a three-point game, it was too little, too late as they fell short by half a dozen to finish the weekend on a down note.
PURE YOUTH 91, KINMEN 80
Pure Youth Construction bounced back from a tough loss to the Yulon Luxgens on Saturday night with a 91-80 win over Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor yesterday afternoon to end the week with a 2-1 record.
Keh Ji-hao’s timely 14 points in the fourth quarter on a 19-point night was the difference in the game as the Builders failed to put the game away early against the last-placed Distillers and needed a big night from the substitute guard to save the day.
“Coach Hsu told me that Hong Chih-shan was not going to be available for the game, so I had to rise to the occasion and I’m glad I did,” Keh said after the game.
Sloppy ball-handling on the part of Kinmen Kaoliang that led to 21 turnovers proved costly for the basement dwellers.
LUXGENS 74, LEOPARDS 73
The Yulon Luxgens skidded past the Taiwan Mobile Leopards in the nightcap last night.
Wu Yong-ren’s would be game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer was ruled a two-pointer, leaving the Leopards a point shy.
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