The Dacin Tigers surprised the previously unbeaten defending champs Pure Youth Construction by taking a double-digit lead in the first half before coming on strong in the final quarter to pull off an improbable 84-78 win at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon.
The victory not only upped the Cats’ current winning streak to three straight, but also put them over the .500 mark in win percentage for the first time this season.
“We knew it would be very tough to beat [Pure Youth], but we were able to pull together as a team to get the job done,” Dacin skipper Hsu Chih-chao said after the game.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
However, the win came at a price for the Tigers, who lost top scorer Tien Lei for at least a week to an injury to his left ankle in the second quarter.
After the Tigers ended the first quarter with a 20-12 lead, the Builders managed to get back on track with Player-of-the-Week Tsai Wen-cheng scoring 10 of their next 32 points over the next two quarters to claim a 53-49 advantage heading into the fourth.
However, the Tigers’ Chen Tzu-wei made sure his team would not lose the game as he erupted for 16 points in the decisive fourth quarter to outscore the Builders 35-25 and run away with the victory.
The absence of starting point guard Chen Shih-jeh due to an injury might have cost the Builders the game as they turned the ball over for an uncharacteristic 21 times, including two in the game’s final minute to set their rally short by a few points.
Luxgens 79, Kinmen Liquor 65
The Yulon Luxgens won back-to-back games for the first time this season with a convincing victory over Kinmen Liquor in the second game in Sinjhuang early yesterday evening.
Backcourt tandem Chou Shih-yuan and Chen Chih-chung teamed up for 40-plus points for the second straight game, with 43 on the night, following a 44-point outburst against Bank of Taiwan on Friday to lead the Luxgens in the big win.
Shutting down Lin Guan-luen and Taylor King was the key to victory for Yulon as they held the Distillers’ top scoring threat to 19 combined points in the game, a tremendous improvement to the 61 points they allowed to Lin and King in their first meeting that ended in a Yulon loss.
Taiwan Beer 83, Bank of Taiwan 82
Byron Allen’s three-point play the old-fashioned way with 1.5 seconds remaining in the game brought Taiwan Beer from two down to escape with a win in the nightcap in Sinjhuang last night.
It was the ultimate redemption for the American center who missed all eight of his free-throw attempts prior to making the final one that helped the Brew Crew rally from as many as 11 down in the fourth quarter in a dramatic comeback victory.
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
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
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