The Dacin Tigers yesterday held off a late-game rally by Bank of Taiwan to escape with a 90-80 win at the Banciao Gymnasium in New Taipei City.
The victory not only extended the third-ranked Cats’ winning streak to three, but it also cut their deficit behind second-ranked Taiwan Beer to 1.5 games as they head down the final stretch of the regular season with four and three games remaining on their respective schedules.
Heading into the contest with a pair of solid wins under their belt, the Tigers came out firing in the opening quarter with Chou Yi-hsiang netting 11 and Lu Chi-er chipping in 10 to double up on the Bankers at 28-14.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The Tigers added another two to their lead in a more competitive second quarter that saw Chu Yi-tsung nailing a pair of three-pointers to close out the first half with a commanding 48-32 advantage.
Dacin increased their margin to 22 points with a 16-4 run early in the third, with Chou and Chang Chih-fong spearheading the offense, only to see the resilient Bankers answer with a sizable run of their own, with Luke Nevill and Chang Po-wei combining for 13 points to keep the deficit at an even dozen by the end of the quarter.
The two teams traded mini runs in the fourth quarter, where the Financial Wizards kept the deficit below 10 for the most part. That set up a 5-0 run in favor of the upset-minded Bankers, who cut the Dacin lead to five with two minutes remaining in the game.
That was as close as they got as the Tigers outscored them 7-2 the rest of the way to pull away in the end.
Failure to put the game away when they had a chance continued to trouble the Cats, who have blown double-digit leads more often than skipper Chiou Da-tsung would like.
“Letting the other team back in the game is an old problem for us; that is something we need to work on a lot more,” Dacin rookie Lu said after the game, pointing out an age-old problem that could hurt his team in the post-season.
Taiwan Beer 86, Kinmen 82, OT
Taiwan Beer yesterday rallied from a second-half deficit to edge past Kinmen Kaoliang in overtime in the second game in New Taipei City.
Chiang Yu-an’s tiebreaking three-pointer with 48 seconds remaining in overtime put Taiwan Beer ahead after they played the entire overtime without top scorer Patrick O’Bryant, who fouled out late in regulation time, to skid past Kinmen Kaoliang.
What should have been an easy victory for the second-ranked Brew Crew against the last-placed Distillers turned into a dogfight, as Kinmen’s best refused to give up in the second half, despite racking up a double-digit first-half lead.
The Distillers trailed by as many as six points with less than two minutes of play remaining in regulation time before forcing the match into an extra session.
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