James Mao’s clutch drive to the hoop with less than five seconds to go earned Pure Youth Construction an 87-85 victory against the Yulon Luxgens at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium in Tianmu yesterday afternoon. It was the defending SBL champions’ second straight victory.
Mao did not have a good game statistically, with only seven points to his credit in over 15 minutes of floor time. However, five of the seven came during the final minute of play to help his team avoid what would have been an embarrassing defeat, with the Builders squandering leads as large as 18 points.
Pure Youth came out firing, with 23 points in the opening quarter, eight of them by hired gun Quincy Davis who led all scorers with 31 on the night.
Photo: Courtesy of SBL
However, the Luxgens were able to chip away at the deficit with a swarming three-point attack that erupted for 35 points in the third to fall within a point of the Builders after trailing by 14 at the half. Yulon actually led in the fourth before letting the game slip away in the end.
Tigers 84, Kinmen Liquor 76
The previously winless Dacin Tigers took advantage of a Kinmen Liquor squad missing the services of former Tiger forward Taylor King to cruise past the Distillers 84-76 in Tianmu last night to pocket their first win of the season.
The American had to miss the encounter because of an agreement stipulating that King would sit out a game between the clubs in exchange for him being allowed to leave the Tigers to join Kinmen Liquor.
Thus the forward had to watch from the sidelines as his former team earned the victory.
Bank of Taiwan 83, Leopards 80
Bank of Taiwan made it two wins in a row by upsetting the Taiwan Mobile Leopards 83-80 in the third game in Tianmu last night.
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,
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