Overcoming a slow start in the first quarter with an explosive second half, Pure Youth Construction easily cruised past the Dacin Tigers in an 88-71 final at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night to take Game 1 of the Super Basketball League (SBL) Championship Finals.
Chen Shih-jeh and Quincy Davis had a field day against the Dacin defense as they combined for 45 points on the night, mostly from inside the paint, with the former penetrating the Dacin interior defense at will and the latter gaining great inside position for several easy slams to lift the Builders past the Cats.
Making their first-ever appearance in the finals, the Builders showed some big-game jitters with a sub-par first quarter in which they committed five turnovers to find themselves trailing the Cats by six in a 20-14 game.
Photo: Super Basketball League
However, they would more than make up for the difference with a sound second quarter behind the strong play of Chen, whose 12 points in the quarter sparked a 29-point burst that put his team ahead 43-38 at the half.
Pure Youth increased their lead to 11 in the third quarter, despite a 6-0 run by the Tigers that brought them to within three of the Builders at one point.
That was all the Tigers could handle as the Builders maintained a double-digit advantage for a good part of the fourth quarter before they simply piled on the points over the final three minutes to claim the all-important series opener.
Four three-pointers by the Tigers in the third kept them in the game early in the second half, but the pressure and the high intensity of the Builders, whose bench was five men deep, eventually caught up with the Tigers as they simply ran out of gas over the final 12 minutes to fall far short in the end.
Four different players scored 14 or more points in the game, with Chen’s 24 leading the way. Tsai Wen-cheng also came off the bench for skipper Hsu Jin-tseh with an immaculate 17-point effort to give the starters some much-needed rest.
As for the Tigers, Noel Felix’s 19-point outing led a fatigued squad who only had three days of rest since Tuesday night’s narrow Game 7 win over Taiwan Beer, compared with the 10 days of down time that Pure Youth enjoyed.
TONIGHT’S CONTEST
The two teams will suit up for Game 2 this evening with the tipoff scheduled for 6pm in Sinjhuang.
It is a must-win situation for the Tigers, since no teams have ever rallied from an 0-2 deficit to win a title in league history.
A banged-up Tien Lei must also get well in a hurry for the Cats if they wish to upset the -regular--season champs in this best-of-seven 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,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set