The underdogs came good in yesterday’s play at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City, with Kinmen Kaoliang downing the Dacin Tigers and the Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards upsetting the Yulon Luxgens.
The Distillers took out their frustration from a blowout loss to top-ranked Pure Youth Construction the night before on the Cats in a 60-56 win to hand Dacin their fifth loss in six games and denying the former league leaders a chance to close out the weekend with a 2-0 record.
Sound defense was the key to success for Kinmen, who returned three starters from minor injuries that had sidelined them the night before as they held the Tiger offense to a miserable 20 points in the first half to enjoy a surprising 30-20 advantage at the break.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The Tigers’ offense finally got back on track with 24 points in the fourth quarter after a dismal third in which they were held to a dozen, but it was too little, too late as Kinmen Kaoliang held off a late-game rally by Dacin that was championed by a pair of three-pointers from Tien Lei.
Top pick Liu Tseng played his best game as a professional with 23 points and 13 boards, to go along with big man Anthony Fuqua’s 17 points and as many rebounds to lead the way for Kinmen Kaoliang, while Tien’s team-high dozen was the lone highlight for the Cats in just their second game under rookie skipper Huang Wan-long.
Leopards 71, Luxgens 58
The Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards also pulled off an upset win against the Yulon Luxgens in the second game to salvage a 1-1 record over the weekend.
Eight first-quarter points by Ryan Wright set the tone early for the Leopards as they took a 21-16 lead after the opening frame and upped it to 10 (40-30) at the half, before pulling away in a solid second half to pick up the win.
Wright would lead all scorers with 23 points, outshining his counterpart Kevin Johnson of Yulon, who managed only nine on the night despite grabbing a game-high 13 boards.
Playing their second game over a 20-hour span, the Luxgens were clearly a step behind the Leopards throughout the contest as fatigue took its toll, leading to a 13-point and 13-rebound margin in favor of the Leopards.
Pure Youth 83, Taiwan Beer 70
Top-ranked Pure Youth Construction made sure the underdogs would not have all their own way yesterday as they took advantage of an 11-2 run in the third quarter to take a 55-43 lead en route to a victory over Taiwan Beer in the late game.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier