Trouble continued for Team Taiwan as they were defeated 110-68 by South Korea at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City last night to finish the preliminary round of this year’s William Jones Cup International Basketball Tournament with a 4-3 record.
With Iran having beaten Jordan 68-67 prior to Taiwan’s match against top-ranked South Korea to assure the home hosts a bid in the semi-finals as the fourth, and final, seed, skipper Chou Chun-san opted to rest his top three starters Tseng Wen-ding, Chen Hsin-an and Lin Chih-jeh, in the interest of conserving their strength.
This move meant more floor time for reserve center Chien Chia-hung (Pure Youth Constructions), who made the most of the opportunity by scoring 29 to lead a Taiwan attack that managed to hang with South Korea for only one-quarter of play.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Also starring was guard Doug Creighton (Taiwan Beer), who netted 11 on the night behind Chien’s 29 to account for the bulk of Taiwan’s offensive production.
Despite playing without their top three starters, Taiwan were able to put up a good fight against the visitors in the opening quarter with guard Chang Tsung-hsien and Chien combining for nine of their team’s 16 points to trail South Korea 19-16.
That was the extent Taiwan could handle the bigger and stronger South Korea squad, who roughed up the Taiwan defense with 10 easy points from close range by 2.21m center Seung Jin-ha to spearhead a 30-point scoring spree in the second quarter to close out the first half with a commanding 49-33 advantage.
South Korea sat out most of their starters in the second half, but that still did not keep them from piling on the points as they exploded for 61 points in the second half en route to the blowout victory.
Next up for a full-strength Taiwan lineup in the semi-finals is the same South Korea team who finished out the preliminaries with a 6-1 record. Tip-off is scheduled for 5pm this afternoon.
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
RSS