Day 2 of the 2012 Hualien Probation Cup Basketball Tournament continued with the Taiwan Mobile Leopards topping Bank of Taiwan in a 79-69 victory at the Hualien County Sports Complex yesterday afternoon, as the Leopards took their second straight game in as many days to take their record to a perfect 2-0.
The addition of big-name stars paid immediate dividends for skipper Chia Fan of the Leopards, as the mobile communications tycoon won with a lineup that can rival the best in the league by acquiring the services of national players Wu Dai-hao, Ho Sho-cheng, Wu Yong-ren, Cheng Ren-wei and Chen Shih-nian.
“Having some impact players on the team definitely made it much easier to win,” Chia said of his brand-new squad following Tuesday night’s big win over the Yulon Luxgens in the opener.
The Bankers still put up a good fight, playing the Leopards tough for more than 30 minutes, and led Taiwan Mobile briefly in the fourth quarter before faltering in the end with newcomer Colby Batiste of the US shining in a Banker’s uniform by racking up a double-double (18 points and 12 rebounds) for head coach Wei Chen-ming.
Luxgens 68, Pure Youth 95
Trouble continued for the Yulon Luxgens as they suffered their second defeat in a row by dropping a 95-68 decision to Pure Youth Constructions to remain winless.
It was the second straight game that the four-time SBL champs were held to under 70 points, further exposing their age and lack-of-depth problems.
In other play yesterday, it was:
‧ USA 95, Taiwan Beer 85
‧ Tigers 88, Kinmen Liquor 78
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