Top-seeded Pure Youth Construction clinched an unprecedented fifth straight trip in the championship finals by topping the fifth-seeded Fubon Braves 77-64 in Game 6 of their semi-final series at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night to win the best-of-seven series 4-2.
Tsai Wen-cheng lead a quartet of double-digit scorers for the Builders, who had too many offensive weapons for the Braves as they shook off the underdogs with a 25-15 scoring differential in the game-deciding third quarter to blow a narrow halftime lead wide open.
“We just played our game in the second half the way we knew how and the rest just took care of itself,” Tsai said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
His team-high 16 points, seven of which came in the fourth quarter, helped spoil any chance of a Braves comeback.
Also worthy of praise were Darian Townes and Keh Chi-hao.
The former led a Pure Youth squad that dominated the Braves on the glass by outrebounding their opponents 45-32, while the latter converted four of six from behind the three-point line as they combined for 29 points.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
With their backs to the wall in a must-win situation, the Braves kept it close against the favorites in the early going by feeding the ball to their top scorer Earl Barron, who netted six of his team’s dozen points in the opening quarter to trail Pure Youth 15-12.
The three-point advantage for the Builders lasted through the second quarter as the two sides ended the first half with a 34-31 scoreline.
A 16-2 run in the first three minutes of the third quarter put the Builders 17 ahead, including four three-pointers by the four-time defending champions.
Even though the Braves reduced a 19-point deficit to 13 by the end of the third and came within seven with Barron and Chang Yu-lin connecting from the perimeter, Tsai made sure the Builders would not be denied as he came up with back-to-back baskets to keep his team’s lead at 10 in the final two minutes of play to seal the deal long before the final buzzer sounded.
Next up for Pure Youth are Taiwan Beer in a highly anticipated championship series that is scheduled to begin on Saturday at the Fengshan Gymnasium in Kaohsiung.
It will be a rematch of last year’s title series in which the Builders rallied from a 1-3 deficit to edge the Brew Crew 4-3.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
“I don’t remember the moment, but ever since I was a kid, that’s the first thing I loved,” two-time NBA All-Star Isaiah Thomas said of his lifelong romance with basketball. However, that journey unfolded against the limitations of his size in a game where height often dictates opportunity — a reality he confronted throughout his career. At 175cm, Thomas is less than 2cm taller than the average Taiwanese adult male, while NBA players during his career stood at about 200cm on average. Compared with the NBA’s average career length of less than five years, Thomas’ 13-season career stands out as
Dakar and Rabat have longstanding ties, but relations have been strained since the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final, which Senegal won in mid-January before being stripped of the title, which was transferred to Morocco. Now, the AFCON trophy is something of a thorn in the two countries’ sides. On Rue Mohamed V, the street where Moroccan vendors are based in the Senegalese capital, a police van is parked. “The police have been on high alert since the Confederation of African Football [CAF] decided to award the title to Morocco, but there have been no incidents,” a local resident said.
RSS