What goes up must come down.
The ancient Chinese proverb could not be more appropriate to describe Kinmen Liquor’s final weekend of play this year. What should have been a relatively easy win over Bank of Taiwan turned into a 71-61 defeat at the Sinjhuang Sport Complex in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon.
The Distillers missed a golden opportunity to close out the year on a high note as they let the game slip through their fingers with a dismal second half in a losing cause.
Seven first-quarter points by Hsu Cheng-wen helped Kinmen Liquor take a 15-10 lead in the first 10 minutes of play, before the Bankers answered with a solid second-half performance to tie the game at 27-all at the half.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Wang Nan-kwei off the Bankers’ bench, coupled with Chen Guo-wei’s deuce, championed an 8-0 run for the underdogs that caught the Distillers completely off guard.
The Bankers managed to keep the cushion at a comfortable seven-or-more the rest of the way as they went on to defeat Kinmen Liquor by 10, ruining the Distillers’ chance to win consecutive games for the first time this season.
Leopards 69, Luxgens 62
Noel Felix scored 19 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in an outstanding effort that lifted the Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards past the Yulon Luxgens in a 69-62 final in the second game at Sinjhuang last night.
The power forward out of Fresno State University took advantage of a shorthanded Yulon interior defense that was missing hired gun Emmanuel Jones through injury and converted several crucial buckets from close range to humble the four-time champs.
The win propelled the Leopards back to the No. 2 spot in the standings.
The Dacin Tigers had the day off for a well-deserved rest after a dropping a tough game to Taiwan Beer the night before.
Pure Youth 79, Taiwan Beer 75
Pure Youth Constructions capped off a long three-game weekend with a 79-75 win over Taiwan Beer to close out the year on a high.
The win salvaged a winning record for the league leaders, who began the weekend with a one-point loss to the Dacin Tigers on Friday and needed back-to-back wins to finish with a 2-1 mark for the weekend.
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