Taiwan’s national team yesterday surprised defending champions South Korea with a 77-64 victory in Nagano, Japan, to win the International Basketball Federation’s East Asia Basketball Championship crown for the first time.
South Korea, looking to extend their run of three consecutive titles, began the stronger side, going ahead 20-15 in the first quarter.
However, Taiwan reversed the deficit in the second quarter, with point guard Liu Cheng and center Quincy Davis leading the charge for a 39-34 scoreline at the intermission.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan put up a solid defense and gradually asserted their dominance, outscoring South Korea 38 to 30 in the second half for a 13-point margin of victory.
Liu and Davis combined for 44 points, while captain Tsai Wen-cheng and point guard Chiang Yu-an also dialed in outstanding performances.
Liu found his scoring touch to finish with a game-high 23 points, while adding four rebounds and two assists.
Davis, a US-born naturalized Republic of China citizen, also had a good day at the office, scoring 21 points to go with 14 rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot.
South Korea power forward Heo Il-young and center Lee Jong-hyun gave a losing effort their best, netting 18 and 13 points respectively.
Taiwan head couch Chou Chun-san praised the team’s all-round effort.
“We faced stiff competition from the [South] Koreans in the opening quarter, but we held on and played our game. We turned it around with our defense, while making field goals when we needed them,” Chou said after the game.
“The leadership provided by veterans Tsai Wen-cheng, Wu Tai-hao and Quincy Davis — who helped the younger players gel as a team — was a critical factor for today’s match and winning the tournament,” he added.
At the start of the tournament, most Taiwanese fans had given up hope for even a decent finish after the national team was blown away 96-63 by China in their opening match.
They regrouped in the second game to defeat Hong Kong 92-57 and upset hosts Japan 78-75 in the semi-final before yesterday’s massive victory over South Korea.
“That 33-point opening loss to China was unsettling and had shaken our confidence, but we got back on track to win games,” Davis said.
“In this championship final we were facing the South Koreans, who are capable of scoring over 100 points in a match. Together we held them to under 70 points; that is a very proud achievement for our team,” he added.
Hosts Japan salvaged some pride by pounding China 76-58 to take third place in front of home fans in Nagano.
Former reality TV star Jessie Holmes on Tuesday night cruised to a repeat victory in the Iditarod, the about 1,609km sled dog race in Alaska. Holmes guided his dog team across the finish line in the old Gold Rush town of Nome, a Bering Sea coastal community. The race started on March 8 in Willow, a day after the ceremonial start in Anchorage. The course took dog teams and their mushers over two mountain ranges, along the frozen Yukon River and across the unpredictable Bering Sea ice. Holmes, a former cast member on the National Geographic reality show Life Below Zero, is the
Taiwanese boxer and Olympic gold medalist Lin Yu-ting has been approved to compete in the Asian Boxing Elite Championships, the Chinese Taipei Boxing Association (CTBA) said yesterday. The championships start on Saturday next week in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Lin became entangled in a gender controversy, despite the International Olympic Committee confirming her eligibility to compete as a female boxer. In August last year, World Boxing mandated a new regulation that required all athletes to undergo a polymerase chain reaction. genetic test to determine their sex at birth and their eligibility. Since the introduction of the test, Lin has missed several
The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots on Sunday fell short in their bid for a first East Asia Super League (EASL) title after a 90-81 loss to Japan’s Utsunomiya Brex in Macau. The defeat marked the second straight year the defending P.League+ champions missed out on the EASL crown, but they remain the first team to reach back-to-back championship games in the league’s three-year history. The outcome was largely decided by long-range shooting. The Pilots struggled from beyond the arc, hitting just five of 20 attempts, while the Brex converted 19 three-pointers, shooting 46.3 percent from long range. Seven of the eight Brex players
ONE MORE CHANCE: While North Korea denied Taiwan in Australia, Taiwan, who last played in the World Cup in 1991, could still qualify via inter-confederation playoffs Taiwan yesterday lost 4-0 to a dominant North Korea in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup playoffs, closing off an avenue to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Hong Song-ok scored a hat-trick in the match to determine the last of the confederation’s qualifiers from the tournament for next year’s World Cup in Brazil. With their victory over Taiwan, North Korea has qualified for the first time since a doping saga in 2011 led to their long absence from top-tier international tournaments. Angela Beard and Jaclyn Sawicki scored in a six-minute span to help the Philippines secure a World Cup spot with a
RSS