Scoring early and often, the Taiwan Mobile Leopards easily beat Bank of Taiwan 79-66 at the Sinjhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City last night for their eighth win of the season.
Liu Sheng-yao and Marcus Dove netted 18 points apiece to lead a balanced Leopard attack that had five different players manage double-digit scores, making it virtually impossible for the Bankers to defend against.
“This is what we are capable of doing if we can focus as a team for four quarters,” Liu said after the game.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The Leopards are known for their inconsistency, which is why they are 8-15 and struggling to keep their playoff ambitions alive.
The Bankers shot a miserable 4-for-18 from the field in the opening frame to find themselves down by a dozen and dug themselves into an even deeper hole in the second quarter by scoring only seven compared with the Leopards’ 20 to trail 18-43 at the half.
The Bankers managed 19 points in the third quarter and closed the gap to as few as 11 in the fourth thanks to a stellar performance by Chen Hsuen-shiang who led all scorers with 19 on the night.
However, it was too little, too late as the Leopards held on in the final minutes to earn a solid win.
The loss marked the Bankers’ third straight defeat after they had won three in a row to make a run for the postseason.
“We really rushed most of our shots tonight, that’s why not many fell for us,” Chen said.
TIGERS 82, LUXGENS 74
The Dacin Tigers cruised past the Yulon Luxgens in the second game last night to force a tie for the third spot in the standings with the Luxgens.
Alexus Foyle had a huge day at the office, with 22 points in the first half alone en route to a season-high 38-point effort.
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
RSS