Kinmen Liquor proved no match for top-ranked Pure Youth Construction as they dropped a 90-69 decision at the Miaoli County Arena last night to start the weekend’s play on a down note.
Heading into the contest with back-to-back wins under their belt, the Distillers appeared ready and able to give the two-time defending champs all they could handle.
That was exactly what happened in the first half as Kinmen Liquor managed to hang tough with the Builders by playing to a 37-all tie through the first 19 minutes of the game, before allowing four straight points in the final minute of the half that resulted in a half-time score of 41-37.
Photo: Courtesy of the SBL
That was the extent to which Kinmen Liquor got into the game as Pure Youth opened the second half with a 6-0 run to lead it by 10 before upping their advantage to as many as 14 points against the struggling Kinmen Liquor offense to close out the third.
A 5-0 run by Kinmen Liquor early in the fourth brought them to within 11 of Pure Youth, only to see the league leaders answer with a 24-14 run of their own over the final seven minutes of the game to pull away in a 21-point victory.
All 12 of the Pure Youth players made it into the scorebook on the night, with Chien Chia-hung’s game-high 19 points leading the way, showing off their tremendous bench depth.
As for the best from Kinmen, failure to hit their jumpers in the third played right into the hands of the Builders as they shot a dismal 4-for-16 from the field, compared with the Builders’ 10-for-16 in the decisive third.
Kinmen Liquor did have one spark in the game when veteran guard Yang Tseh-yi netted 10 points in the first half to reach his career 3,000-point mark.
BANK OF TAIWAN 69, DACIN TIGERS 59
Bank of Taiwan upended the Dacin Tigers in a 69-59 final in the second game in Miaoli last night.
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
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite