Chen Chih-chung scored a post-season career-high 27 points and Lu Cheng-rue knocked down a key three-pointer that killed a late-game rally by the Dacin Tigers as the Yulon Luxgens went on to win Game 4 of the Championship Finals 87-81 at the Taipei County Gymnasium in Sinjhuang last night.
The victory gave the three-time champions a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, leaving them one win shy of clinching their fourth SBL title in seven seasons.
“We knew a big win tonight would give us a tremendous advantage, so we gave it all we got,” Chen said after the game.
His game-high 27 points led a balanced Yulon attack that placed five different players in double-digit scoring.
Also starring was Chen’s backcourt teammate Lee Hsueh-lin, whose 11 points in the fourth quarter kept a ferocious Dacin rally at bay in a game where the Luxgens led by up to 17 points in the first half, before allowing the defending champions to pull within a deuce in the closing minutes of the contest.
Solid inside plays by the Luxgens’ Tseng Wen-ding and the Tigers’ Byron Allen highlighted the first seven minutes of the match, with the former scoring six and the latter netting eight of their team’s first dozen points.
However, the Luxgens pulled off an 8-2 run late in the first quarter to lead it 25-16 after one quarter of play.
Chen’s 13 points in the second quarter helped the Luxgens up their lead to a dozen at halftime, before the Tigers roared back with a strong third in which Allen dominated against a foul-troubled Tseng to cut the deficit to four by the end of the quarter.
After the Luxgens steadily increased their lead back to seven, with Lee converting his second three-pointer of the quarter at the 2 minute, 50 seconds mark, the Tigers went on a 4-0 run in the next minute to make it a three-point game again.
However, Lu’s rally-killing three with 50.3 seconds on the game clock pushed the Luxgens’ lead up to 82-76, a lead they would not relinquish en route to the win.
With their backs to the wall, the Tigers must come up big in tonight’s Game 5, scheduled for 7pm in Sinjhuang, where a win would force a Game 6 tomorrow, while another loss would crown the Luxgens as the new rulers of the SBL.
SS Lazio on Monday fired the far-right sympathizer who handles their eagle mascot after he posted online a series of videos and pictures of his erect penis. Falconer Juan Bernabe, who has been present at Lazio home matches with Olimpia the eagle since the 2010-2011 season, posted the footage on social media after having surgery on Saturday to implant a penile prosthesis to improve his sexual performance. Lazio said that they had “terminated, with immediate effect” their relationship with Bernabe “due to the seriousness of his conduct,” adding that they were “shocked” by the images. The Serie A club added that Bernabe’s dismissal
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
Dubbed a “motorway for cyclists” where avid amateurs can chase Tadej Pogacar up mountains teeming with the highest concentration of professional cyclists per square kilometer in the world, Spain’s Costa Blanca has forged a new reputation for itself in the past few years. Long known as the ideal summer destination for those in search of sun, sea and sand, the stretch of coast between Valencia and Alicante now has a winter vocation too. During the season break in December and January, the region experiences an invasion of cyclists. Star names such as three-time Tour de France winner Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel and Julian Alaphilippe