Dacin Tiger reserve forward Kao Cheng-kan (高正侃) made the most of the 16 minutes he played in Saturday's contest against Bank of Taiwan by scoring 14 points as the Tigers cruised to an easy 75-54 win.
The 21-year-old graduate of the National Taiwan University of Arts matched his previous points total for the season in just one game with a brilliant effort, making a strong case to coach Liu Chia-fa (劉嘉發) for more playing time in the future.
As for the rest of the Tiger lineup, it was a typical night where team leader Tien Lei (田壘) got his usual double-double (18 points and 16 rebounds) and the defense held the opposition to less than 40 percent shooting from the floor.
Shying away from its "tough-guy" style of play, Bank of Taiwan lost its dominance with a 16-point rebounding deficit (34 to 50), something it had not seen since the early days of the season.
Yulon 71, Jeoutai 85
Kicking off the Lunar New Year with a bang, the Jeoutai Elephants beat the previously undefeated Yulong Dinos with 85-71 in Saturday night's prime time matchup.
It took the Elephants a perfect game to accomplish what many had considered impossible as they took control of the game early on and sustained the intensity for the entire contest. In addition to converting an unbelievable 26 of the 52 two-pointers taken, the Elephants also held an edge over the Dinos in the rebounding and turnover department.
Yang Yu-ming (楊玉明) followed his stellar performance in Friday night's All Star Game with another fine effort, leading the Elephants with 28 points.
The shooting wiz cut several of the Dinos' comeback rallies short by draining key baskets to preserve the lead for his team.
Sina 81, Taiwan Beer 80
In the most exciting game of the weekend by far, the Lions overcame first-half deficits as large as 12 points to beat the Beer men by one point in Game 1 on Sunday afternoon. The victory kept the Lions' eight-game winning streak intact and narrowed the Dinos' (11-1) lead over the Lions (8-3) to just two-and-a-half games.
Veteran center Huang Chuen-hsiung (黃春雄) led the way for the Lions with 24 points, none more critical than the two from the free-throw line which helped put the Lions up by four in the closing seconds of the game. The four-point lead that made it a two-possession game for Taiwan Beer turned out to be the difference because Lin "the Monster" Chih-jeh's (林志傑) three-pointer at the final buzzer would have forced a tie.
The defeat left the Beer men in a difficult position as they struggle to keep their postseason hopes alive.
Bank of Taiwan 62, BCC 81
Striking early and often, the BCC Mars concluded the weekend with an easy win over the Bank of Taiwan, with eleven different Mars players taking the floor.
The Mars took a 22-12 lead after the first period and extended it to 42-23 at the half, as they took advantage of a Bank of Taiwan squad that was missing two of its top five players [Chu Yung-hung (朱永弘) and Luo Da-wei (駱大偉)] due to injury.
Coupled with Saturday's 54-point effort, Bank of Taiwan hit an all-time low for least points scored in back-to-back games, a distinction it would rather forget.
Disgusted with his team's lack of spirit and desire to win, coach Wei Chen-ming (韋陳明) skipped the post-game press conference and later insisted on a new weekly practice routine that he hopes will change his team's losing ways.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
WORLD SERIES: ‘The individuals that were involved in that last night was a very small segment of the east Los Angeles community,’ the Los Angeles county sheriff said Rowdy crowds took to the streets of Los Angeles after the LA Dodgers won the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, setting a city bus on fire, breaking into stores and lighting fireworks. A dozen arrests were reported by police on Thursday, but officials said that most fans celebrated peacefully. Video showed revelers throwing objects at police in downtown LA as sirens blared and officers told them to leave the area on Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the MLB World Series at Giants Stadium in New York. Another video showed someone standing atop