The Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards converted all 10 of their final free-throw attempts with the game on the line to down Kinmen Kaoliang 84-76 at the Sinjhuang Sport Complex in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon, finishing off the weekend with a perfect 2-0 record.
Noel Felix did as he pleased against an inferior Kinmen interior defense that does not have a true center by racking up a team-high 27 points and 15 rebounds to humble the Distillers.
Even though his counterpart, Taylor King of the US, had a solid game with a season-high 30 points and 19 rebounds, it was not enough to make up for his absence on defense against the top opposing scorer, who lifted Kinmen past the Leopards.
“We are a lot better than our 1-7 record shows, because many of our losses have been very close and we could have easily been 4-4 or better if some breaks had gone our way,” King said after the game.
Despite falling behind by as many as 10 points, the Distillers hung tough against the Leopards by virtue of King’s red-hot shooting to tie the game at 58-58 through three quarters of play.
However, with the game on the line in the decisive fourth, it was the Leopards who sank all 10 of their free throws in the final three minutes of play to wipe away any hopes of a late Kinmen Kaoliang comeback.
Pure Youth 77, Luxgens 57
Pure Youth Construction bounced back from their first loss of the season on Saturday by trouncing the Yulon Luxgens in the second game in Sinjhuang early yesterday evening to settle for a 1-1 record over the weekend.
With starting point man Chen Shih-jeh back in the lineup, the defending champions promptly regained their winning form as they shook off a subpar first quarter by outscoring the Luxgens 24-13 in the second quarter to take the lead for good en route to the blowout win.
Hired gun Colby Batiste dressed, but did not play, for the Luxgens, suggesting that the American forward’s tenure with the team may be in jeopardy as he failed to make the roster with the second team he has been with after he opened the season with Bank of Taiwan.
Tigers 73, Taiwan Beer 66
The Dacin Tigers doubled up on Taiwan Beer in a 20-10 first quarter and never looked back as they downed the Brew Crew by seven points in the weekend finale in Sinjhuang last night.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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