Chen Tzu-wei’s buzzer-beating three-pointer with the game clock expiring broke a 76-all tie as the Dacin Tigers edged past the Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards 79-76 in an overtime thriller to win Game 7 of their semi-final series at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium in Tianmu last night.
The soft-spoken center out of National Taiwan Normal University, who also serves as an assistant coach for his alma mater, rose to the occasion by draining the game-winner to send his team into the championship finals for the second straight season in a rematch against the defending champs, Pure Youth Construction.
“I never thought I would hit the game-winner; Tien Lei was supposed to be the one to take the last shot,” a very emotional Chen said after the game.
He received a nice feed from Luo Yu-chuin off the baseline and hit nothing but the bottom of the net with 0.7 seconds remaining in overtime to give his club the lead for good.
The three not only extended the Tigers’ season for at least four more games, but also prevented what would have been the biggest post-season comeback victory in league history, at their expense, as the Tigers squandered a 27-point advantage in the first half with a poorly-executed second half to allow the Leopards back in the game.
“I never stopped believing in our players, because we’ve come so far in the ten years I’ve been around the league, and I am so proud of them,” a teary-eyed Dacin skipper Hsu Chih-chao said after the game.
His made it into the championship finals previously as a Dacin player, and now he will lead the Tigers into the finals as head coach.
The Leopards had a chance to win the game in regulation time, with Cheng Ren-wei forcing an awkward shot in the closing seconds, but could not convert with two Tiger players defending against him.
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