Rallying from a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter, the Fubon Braves outscored the Yulon Luxgens 27-18 in the final frame to escape with an 81-80 win in the season opener last night.
The sellout crowd at the Banciao Gymnasium in New Taipei City was treated to a high-intensity game in which the Luxgens led for most of the second half before the Braves’ Joseph Lin took matters into his own hands, scoring his team’s final four points to lift them past their foes.
“It is great to be able to help our club win,” Lin said after the game. “I’d like to thank my teammates for their support and believing in me.”
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
There is no doubt that he is trying to establish himself without being constantly reminded about being NBA star Jeremy Lin’s younger brother.
With his team trailing late in the game, the Fubon guard put in a lay-up with 18 seconds remaining to pull his team to within a point of the Luxgens before nailing a pair of free throws with less than 10 seconds on the clock to put the Braves ahead for good.
Four three’s by the Braves in the opening quarter, including a pair from newcomer Earl Barron of the US, spotted the favorites a 19-14 advantage after one quarter.
The Automakers answered the challenge with a solid second quarter, in which big man Magnum Rolle and forward Chou Po-chen combined for 11 of their team’s 24 points, while keeping the Braves to 14 in the quarter to take a 38-33 lead at the half.
Yulon added to their lead in the third quarter with three’s from Rolle and Chou Shih-yuan before the Braves rallied behind the red-hot shooting of Lin in the fourth to escape with a thrilling win.
Failure to secure the defensive glass by Yulon, which led to five offensive rebounds for the Braves, proved costly, as it gave the victors just enough second-chance opportunities to keep the game within their reach for the knockout blow.
Besides going down on the scoreboard, the Luxgens also lost Chou to an apparently serious knee injury. The veteran shooting guard slipped in the closing seconds after converting five of six of nine from beyond the three-point line to help his club nearly pull off an upset win.
PURE YOUTH 72, TAIWAN BEER 78
Taiwan Beer knocked off four-time defending champions Pure Youth Construction in the second game in New Taipei City last night to start the new season on a high.
Liu Cheng knocked down a tiebreaking three with less than four minutes to play and followed up with two free-throws to give the Brew Crew the lead the rest of the way.
The win not only dealt the Builders a rare loss in a season opener, but also avenged a bitter defeat Taiwan Beer suffered against them in last season’s Championship Finals.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
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