Taiwan proved no match for top-ranked South Korea in the semi-finals of this year’s William Jones Cup, falling short of their rivals from the north in a thrilling 90-85 overtime loss at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night to drop out of title contention.
It was the second straight loss that the hosts suffered in as many days following Friday night’s embarrassing 110-68 defeat against a South Korea squad that outplayed Taiwan in every facet of the game.
However, the hosts did not make it easy on the visitors one bit as they led by as many as 10 points in the third quarter, but an all-out rally by South Korea in the fourth quarter forced the game into extra session before South Korea prevailed in the end.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Unlike Friday night’s contest when the services of top starters Chen Hsin-an, Lin “the Beast” Chih-chieh and Tseng Wen-ding were missing because of strategic considerations by the coaching staff, last night’s match saw all but Tseng in the lineup.
And the difference was tremendous as Taiwan shook off some first-half blues with a strong third, highlighted by team captain Chen’s 10-point spurt to push Taiwan’s lead to as many as 10 (47-37).
However, with the game on the line, South Korea resorted to offensive threat T.J. Moon, whose 18 points in the second half quickly erased the Taiwan lead, before Moon took over the game in overtime with 10 of his team’s 19 points to seal the win.
After Moon’s three-pointer gave South Korean a 71-69 lead with 41.2 seconds remaining in regulation, it was Chen who quickly answered with a strong drive to the basket for two to tie the game at 71-all.
South Korea missed two critical free throws with 21.6 seconds remaining in regulation time to give Taiwan what seemed to be the final possession of the ball for the potential game-winning play.
However, a questionable jump-ball call by the referee that awarded South Korea possession of the ball denied the home team the chance at the final shot.
Next up for Taiwan are the Philippines, loser to Iran in the other semi-final match, in the fight for the third-place finish with tip-off scheduled for 5pm this afternoon.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite
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