Taiwan rallied from as many as 11 down in the second half with a brilliant fourth quarter to defeat South Korea 80-73 at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night to close out this year’s William Jones Cup International Basketball Tournament with a third-place finish.
Hung Chih-shan and Tsai Wen-cheng saved the best for last by combining for eleven of Taiwan’s 20 points in the final quarter to rally the hosts from deficits as large as 11 on the way to one of the biggest wins over South Korea in the tournament’s history.
Tsai’s timely surge on both sides of the ball, coupled with Hung’s clutch three’s with the game on the line championed Taiwan to a 10-point lead late in the game to seal off the victory.
With the top two places already secured by Iran and the Philippines respectively, Taiwan needed a win over South Korea to secure a third-place finish — a loss would have resulted in the hosts finishing fifth.
Taiwan led 9-0 early on, but deadly perimeter shooting by South Korea soon took over, with Lee Seung-hyun and Lee Jung-hyun combining for five three’s against a sluggish Taiwan defense in the first half to give the visitors a 45-41 lead at the half.
A series of missed shots by Taiwan led to several easy baskets for South Korea stretching the deficit to eleven before an all-out rally by Taiwan that started late in the third and carried into the fourth finally tied the game at 63-63 with 8 minutes, 40 seconds remaining.
Taiwan then went on a 17-10 run to deny the visitors any chance of a comeback.
PHILIPPINES 96, TAIWAN B 67
Taiwan Team B ended the nine-day tournament with a 96-67 hammering by the Philippines to finish with a 0-8 record.
Eight quick points by Jayson William in the opening quarter helped the Philippines take a 24-21 lead. That was also the smallest deficit for Taiwan, who mustered only eleven points in a disappointing second quarter to trail the visitors 50-32 at the half.
Four players scored in double-digits for the Philippines, led by Gary David’s game-high 22 points, compared with Taiwan’s Chien Wei-ju and Hsiao Hsun-yi, who netted 18 and 14 points respectively.
RUSSIA 76, JAPAN 63
Russia improved to a 5-3 mark for the tournament with a 76-63 win over Japan in their final contest to leave with the fourth-place finish.
Japan led for a good part of the first half after briefly trailing Russia in the first quarter, thanks to the brilliant play of Takatoshi Furukawa, who scored eleven of his team-high 18 points in the first half.
However, Russia closed in on Japan, who led 37-33 at the half, with a solid third quarter to even the score at 52-52 before outscoring their opponents 24-11 to pull away in the end.
In yesterday’s other Williams Jones Cup match, New Zealand recorded a 91-89 overtime victory over the US.
MEDVEDEV AWAITS: The world No. 1 Spainiard said that he is ‘finding the right shots’ as he pushed his record so far this year to 16 victories and no losses Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday extended his unbeaten season and got revenge over Cameron Norrie to reach the semi-finals at Indian Wells for a fifth straight year. The world No. 1 from Spain emerged from a see-saw battle with 29th-ranked Norrie with a 6-3, 6-4 victory. In the semis tomorrow, he faces Russian Daniil Medvedev, who pushed his own ATP winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 7-5 victory over defending champion Jack Draper. World No. 2 Jannik Sinner powered past Learner Tien 6-1, 6-2 to line up a semi-final with fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over Arthur Fils. Alcaraz, 22, became
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
Brice Turang and Pete Crow-Armstrong’s consecutive RBI singles proved to be the difference in the US’ 5-3 win over Canada in a World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarterfinal on Friday night in Houston. The US faces the Dominican Republic, which crushed South Korea 10-0 in seven innings in its quarter-final, in a semifinal Sunday in Miami for a spot in Tuesday’s championship. The Dominican team has won all five games in this WBC by a combined margin of 51-10. It appeared the US squad was headed toward a cozy victory when it built a 5-0 lead by the sixth inning. A first-inning RBI groundout
RSS