The Fubon Braves concluded a three-game week with a 86-72 win over Bank of Taiwan at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night to finish the week with a perfect record.
Hired gun Darian Townes bounced back from a low-scoring effort against Taiwan Beer on Friday night with a 21-point outing in less than 24 minutes of play to lead all scorers, upping his team-best average to 23.2 points per game.
The Braves opened the contest with a 9-0 run against the disorganized Bankers, who missed their first five attempts.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Even though Bank of Taiwan regrouped in a hurry to close out the first quarter trailing the Braves 22-17, they were outscored 28-8 in a decisive second quarter to dig themselves a hole too deep to get out of.
With a 25-point cushion at the half, Fubon head coach Otis Hughley gave Townes a break of more than five minutes in the third, during which the Bankers halved the deficit.
However, that did not affect the outcome of the game, as the Braves maintained their poise in the fourth quarter to keep the lead at more than a dozen the rest of the way.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Luxgens 71, Kinmen Kaoliang 78
Red-hot Kinmen Kaoliang won the fifth of their past seven games with a triumph over the Yulon Luxgens in New Taipei City yesterday afternoon, dealing the Automakers their second straight defeat in as many days.
The win also lifted the Distillers to a tie for fourth place with Yulon, with both teams 8-11, a considerable improvement for Kinmen given their dismal 2-8 start.
Other than top-scorer Bryan Davis’ usual 30-plus-point outing — he got 33 last night — the game belonged to rookie Chien Wei-rue, who came off the bench for skipper Wu Chun-hsiung and scored a season-high 20 points to bail out a Distillers squad, who were missing regular starter Hsu Hao-cheng to injury and his replacement, Lin Wei-han, who was hurt during the game.
“[Chien] really did a tremendous job for us with [Hsu] Hao-cheng and [Lin] Wei-han not available,” Wu said after the game.
Pure Youth 93, Tigers 80
Top-ranked Pure Youth Construction rallied from a first-half deficit to rough up the Dacin Tigers 93-80 in the weekend finale in New Taipei City.
The Builders bombarded the Tigers defense, converting 13 of 22 three-point attempts, highlighted by Doug Creighton’s season-high seven from downtown to deal the free-falling Cats their seventh straight defeat.
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