Tso Tsong-kai was named last week’s Player of the Week in the Super Basketball League for his outstanding effort and fine leadership in guiding Taiwan Beer to a 2-1 record over an arduous three-game weekend.
Members of the Basketball Writers’ Association were near-unanimous in their decision to select the shooting guard out of Taipei’s Tsai Hsing High School to the weekly honor for his steady offensive production that saw him pour in 17.3 points and four rebounds per game over a three-game sequence for Taiwan Beer.
His five-for-six shooting from behind the three-point arc was especially crucial in lifting the Brew Crew past their archrivals, the Dacin Tigers, in a marquee victory that propelled them to third spot in the standings.
“I’d like to thank my coaches and teammates for their confidence and support in helping me land [the Player of the Week honor], I could not have done it without them,” Tso said.
His continuing success in the shooting guard’s role will not only take the scoring load off fellow forward Liu Chan, but also strengthen Taiwan Beer’s backcourt presence with the return of point man Su Yi-cheh from injury.
“Now that [Tso] is back to where he feels most comfortable at the shooting guard position [as opposed to the point guard position at the start of the season], he will have even more opportunities to do what he does best, which is shooting the ball and scoring,” Taiwan Beer skipper Yen Chia-hua said of his budding star.
Yen and his crew will have a chance to make a run for the No. 2 spot in the standings this weekend with a big game against streaky Kinmen Kaoliang tonight, followed by Sunday’s showdown against the second-ranked Taiwan Mobile Cloud Leopards.
With Tso matching up very well against a smaller Kinmen backcourt, the sharpshooter should have several good looks at the basket this evening to help him crank up the scoring for the Brew Crew.
How well Taiwan Beer big man Patrick O’Bryant stacks up against his counterpart Aaron Pettway will also play a role in determining the outcome of the game, with the winner in this matchup and his team likely to take the game.
Tonight’s other contest
The second weekend of play in the year begins tonight with top-ranked Pure Youth Construction taking on last-placed Bank of Taiwan in a David and Goliath battle at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City. The tip-off is scheduled for 6pm.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later