Play continued in this year’s Hualien Probation Cup yesterday with Bank of Taiwan rallying to edge Pure Youth Construction in an 85-82 thriller at the Hualien County Sports Complex.
The Bankers took advantage of a shorthanded Builders squad that was missing the services of Quincy Davis, Chen Shih-chieh and Hung Chih-shan to the national team by outscoring their opponents in each of the first three quarters to take a 57-49 lead at the start of the fourth quarter.
However, Pure Youth would not go quietly as they countered with their patented full-court press, causing the Bankers to turn the ball over on several possessions, which led to easy baskets for the Builders at the other end of the floor.
The Builders actually took a brief lead midway through the fourth quarter, before the Bankers finally broke through with some nifty passing down the stretch to reclaim the lead for good.
“Even though [Pure Youth] did not have a full crew on the day, we still tried our best to get the job done, which made me very proud of our guys,” Bankers skipper Hung Chun-cheng said after the game.
His troops finally shook off their usual late-game jitters against heavy pressure to pull off the minor upset that sent them into today’s semi-finals.
Topping all scorers with 29 points on the day was Chang Bo-sheng, while captain Chen Hsuan-hsiang and newcomer James Tyler chipped in 14 points apiece to help the Financial Wizards prevail.
Brex 95, Luxgens 74
Japan’s Link Tochigi Brex also triumphed in their final game of the preliminaries yesterday afternoon by downing the Yulon Luxgens in a 95-74 blowout to reach the semi-finals this afternoon.
The visitors opened the contest with a 27-point first quarter thanks to hired guns Kyle Barone and Ryan Rossiter, who dominated the inside of the paint with eight points each to humble the Yulon interior defense.
The front-court tandem for the Japanese side, who were the players of the year in the conferences of their respective colleges in the US, demonstrated the gap between the type of foreign talent that Japanese sides can attract compared with that of Taiwanese sides.
After being outscored 28-19 in the first quarter, the Luxgens showed signs of improvement by going toe-to-toe with the Japanese side in the second quarter to keep the deficit at fewer than 10 at halfway (51-42).
That was as close as the Luxgens got as the Brex piled on 27 points in the third quarter to claim a double-digit advantage and added to it in a meaningless fourth to run away with the big victory.
Yesterday’s other result:
‧ Taiwan Beer 93, SMAA 61
‧ Chiba Jets 88, Dacin Tigers 76
GUNNING FOR A WIN: The victory sending Arsenal to the final for the first time in six years was cathartic for a team who had lost their previous four semi-finals Arsenal on Tuesday reached the League Cup final for the first time in eight years as Kai Havertz sealed a 1-0 win against Chelsea in the semi-final second leg. Mikel Arteta’s side had put themselves in pole position in the first leg and Havertz came off the bench to finish the 4-2 aggregate victory in the closing moments at the Emirates Stadium. It was a cathartic triumph for the Gunners, who had lost their previous four semi-finals in last year’s UEFA Champions League and League Cup, the 2022 League Cup and the 2021 UEFA Europa League. In their first final for six years,
Ademola Lookman on Thursday scored on his Atletico Madrid debut in a 5-0 rout of Real Betis Balompie that sent Diego Simeone’s team to the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey. David Hancko, Giuliano Simeone, Antoine Griezmann and Thiago Almada also scored for Atletico as they advanced to the last four for the third straight season. Atletico are trying to reach their first Copa final since winning the competition in 2012-2013. Hancko opened the scoring for the visitors in the 12th minute and Giuliano Simeone added to the lead in the 30th, before Lookman got his first goal for Atletico on a fast
SUPERSTAR DELIVERS: Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to propel the Spurs to a 135-123 victory over the Dallas Mavericks The Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday shook off the early exit of injured star Luka Doncic, rallying without him in the second half for a 119-115 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Austin Reaves, again coming off the bench in his second game back from a 19-game injury absence, scored 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, drilling a pair of back-to-back three-pointers to give the Lakers their first lead of the game early in the final frame. “Losing Luka, you know nothing’s going to be easy after that because he does so much for us, but we bonded together,” said
DEADLINE DAY: Rennes’ Jacquet had been linked with a transfer to Chelsea earlier this month, but was reportedly put off the move due to the Blues’ bloated squad Liverpool on Monday won the race to sign Stade Rennais defender Jeremy Jacquet on the quiet final day of the English Premier League transfer window, while Crystal Palace swooped for Wolverhampton Wanderers striker Jorgen Strand Larsen despite the collapse of Jean-Philippe Mateta’s move to AC Milan. The Reds agreed a reported fee of up to ￡60 million (US$82 million) for the highly rated Jacquet. However, the 20-year-old will not join the Premier League champions until the summer despite Liverpool’s need for defensive reinforcements. Jacquet had been linked with a transfer to Chelsea earlier this month, but was reportedly put off
RSS