South Korea outplayed Taiwan A for a 67-57 win to grab second place in the last game of 38th William Jones Cup last night, while the junior Taiwan side were outclassed by the top side.
The Taiwan A result gave South Korea a 6-2 record, while the host’s top team dropped to fourth with a 5-3 record, the same as Iran.
Fans packed the Sinjhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City for the fourth game of the day, but saw South Korea take a 32-26 lead at halftime.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Taiwan battled back and came within three points at one stage in the third quarter.
However, the visitors made the most of their field goals and ran end-to-end in fast breaks to maintain a double-digit lead throughout the fourth to claim a hard-earned win.
“The South Koreans deserved this win; all credit to their good teamwork,” Taiwan A head coach Yan Jia-hua said in a post-game interview. “They got the better of us with their quick pace and took their scoring chances well. We made more mistakes and our shooting was not up to par in this game.”
Photo: CNA
“Some of our younger players got agitated and nervous when trailing,” Yan said. “That made them more error-prone.”
“I hope they can gain good experience from this international tournament and make improvements from it,” he said.
Iran, winners last year, took third after rolling past India 71-56 in the first game.
Edging ahead by only one point, 32-31, at halftime, Iran’s offense opened up their aerial attack and widened the lead down the stretch.
Shooting guard Behnam Yakhchali and center Rouzbeh Arghavan took charge in the second half.
Yakhchali ended up with 15 points and six rebounds, while Arghavan had 10 points and nine rebounds.
Two other Iran players had double-digit games.
Accuracy from outside tipped the advantage to Iran, as they made 10 three-pointers.
Overall, Iran shot 60 percent for field goals, compared with 46 percent for India.
India captain Amritpal Singh top scored among both squads with 22 points and added nine rebounds for a fine display, but his team still fell to their seventh defeat, finishing last with a 1-7 record.
US-Sacramento State (sixth) pounded Japan (fifth) 71-51 in the second afternoon encounter.
That outcome left both sides, along with Egypt (seventh), with 3-5 records.
Starting forward Justin Strings had a breakout game for the US-based side, posting a game-high 23 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Japan were only behind by six points at 23-29 at the end of the first half, but the bigger and more physical US players solidified their defense and made forays into the lane to pull away in the second half for a 20-point margin of victory.
Japan forward Akanobu Nishikawa made three of five three-pointers and was top scorer for his team’s with 14 points.
Taiwanese teenager Jeff Wu, who is attending California State University, Sacramento, was shadowed by his opponents and only got four points in just over 12 minutes of game time.
In the third game, Philippines-Mighty Sports showed their class as they finished the competition undefeated, trouncing Taiwan B 104-80.
Having already clinched the title the previous day, the Philippines did not go easy on Taiwan’s junior national side, who are preparing for next year’s Summer Universiade.
The visitors were too much for Taiwan B, crossing the century mark for the second time this tournament.
The starting five for the Philippines posted double digits, with the exception of Filipino-American point guard Jason Brickman, who netted eight.
Point guard Dewarick Spencer had a 27-point haul, while Michael Singletary got 21, Al Thornton 13 and Vernon Macklin 10.
Taiwan B trailed 33-54 at halftime and did not quit, chasing the Philippines all the way, but the experienced opposition kept their scoring pace for a 24-point triumph.
With a 2-6 record, Taiwan B finished eighth, just ahead of cellar-dwellers India in ninth.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier