Jonathan Sanders' exceptional all-round game that led his Videoland Hunters to three straight wins over worthy opponents last weekend landed the American forward this week's Super Basketball League Player of the Week honor.
The offseason acquisition for the once troubled Hunters averaged 21 points, 16.3 rebounds, and 2.6 assists per contest during the three-game stretch, including a rare "double-20" effort (20 or more points and rebounds) in last Sunday's game against the Azio Eagles
This is the main reason why the Hunters are the lone unbeaten team heading into the third week of competition, making him the unanimous choice among members of the voting press for the coveted weekly award.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Sanders was unable to comment following his selection in the weekly ballot, but team officials did relate his gratitude and desire to improve on his already impressive performances in games to come.
Sanders and his hunting buddies will have a chance to run up the tab in the win column with back-to-back games versus the Dacin Tigers and Bank of Taiwan starting tomorrow and extend their winning streak to five in a row.
While the Tigers and the bankers will undoubtedly be looking to contain Sanders with double-team coverage, how well the Hunters defend against the lethal transition game of the Tigers and the bankers will play a crucial role in the outcome of these two games.
Tonight's Games
Kicking off this week's play will be the contest between Taiwan Beer and the bankers at the Taipei Physical Education College Gymnasium at 6:30 this evening, where top Taiwan Beer scorer Lin "the Beast" Chih-jeh will try to lead his beer crew past a Jien Ming-fu-led speedy bankers squad that is fresh off a last-second three-point win over the Eagles last Sunday.
Preliminary reports on this game has the beermen as early favorites with the Beast and fellow three-point threat Ho Sho-cheng both playing their "A" game for headman Yen Jia-hua.
Tonight's other contest between the ETTV Antelopes and the Eagles, both winless after the first two weeks of play will also draw much attention simply because neither club believes that their respective record truly reflect their ability.
All eyes will be focused on the highly anticipated return of Delvin Thomas, the injured American muscleman who missed two of the Antelopes' past three games with a bumped left knee.
Should Thomas live up to his preseason form, the Antelopes will have an easy time against the Eagles, especially with their top center Jien Jia-hong still serving a four-game suspension for starting a brawl last Friday against the Tigers.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa yesterday set a women’s only world record of 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds as she won the London Marathon, while Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe put a star-studded men’s field to the sword. For 28-year-old Assefa it was ample compensation for finishing runner-up in London and the Paris Olympics last year — especially as bitter Dutch rival, the Ethiopia-born Sifan Hassan, finished third. Assefa dropped Kenya’s Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race, played out in blazing sunshine and with thousands lining the route, entered its business end. She came home almost three minutes clear of the Kenyan. Hassan, who beat her in
RSS