Herve Lamizana easily won the Player of the Week award in this week’s voting with a solid all-round outing in last week’s play, helping the Yulon Luxgens to a pair of important wins.
The Yulon standout, who played a full season with the Luxgens two years ago before rejoining the team for his second stint last week, wasted little time making a difference in his first two games, averaging 23 points and a dozen rebounds to lift the Automakers past two worthy opponents.
“I would like to thank my coaches and teammates for their support in making [the award win] possible; I would like to keep contributing regardless of how many games there are left for me to play,” Lamizana said after learning of his selection for the weekly honor.
Photo courtesy of the SBL
His future with the Automakers is still up in the air, as his contract is only good for the rest of the season.
“[Lamizana] is already familiar with our system, so there really was not much time needed to get him up to speed, which was crucial for us,” Yulon skipper Lin Cheng-ming said of his newly arrived center.
The Luxgens had gone a dismal 1-6 in their previous seven contests before winning back-to-back matches to reclaim fourth spot in the standings.
Even though it might still be too early to tell if Lamizana is the key to bringing the four-time champions back to their glory days, his tremendous versatility and floor presence have already resulted in an obvious boost of confidence for a club who were desperate for any kind of help.
“[Lamizana] definitely helped us occupy the inside of the paint more than before, which helped free up the perimeters for outside threats such as Lu Cheng-rue and Chou Shih-yuan” Lin added.
Lin and his crew will need more than a fully prepared Lamizana and Lu to take on red-hot Bank of Taiwan and top-ranked Pure Youth Construction this week as they look to take a firmer grip on their position on the table heading into the final two weeks of regular-season play.
PLAYER OF THE MONTH
Kinmen Kaoliang’s Bryan Davis was named the Player of the Month for last month this week for his outstanding play in the Distillers’ recent surge.
The former Texas A&M University power forward, who has found a niche with the Distillers, was rock solid in the 10 games he played last month, scoring an average of 28.5 points per game to help his team to a 5-5 mark.
“[Winning the Player of the Month award] is a tremendous honor, but I will focus all my energy on getting the team into the post-season,” Davis said after learning of his selection.
TONIGHT’S CONTESTS
The league will make its Hualien debut this week, with eight games scheduled at the Hualien County Sports Complex.
Kinmen Kaoliang face Pure Youth in the first game this evening, followed by a showdown between the Fubon Braves and Taiwan Beer.
Last night’s results:
Braves 82, Kinmen Kaoliang 63
Luxgens 75, Bank of Taiwan 77
Lin Yun-ju on Thursday handed Taiwan two key victories as they advanced to the semi-finals of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in London. The Taiwan men’s table tennis team beat Sweden 3-2 in five singles matches. The 24-year-old Lin, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7 and nicknamed the “Silent Assassin,” opened the tie by defeating world No. 2 Truls Moregard 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 13-11) before clinching the deciding fifth match with a 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-5) win over Anton Kallberg to hand his team the overall victory. Kuo Guan-hong put Taiwan up 2-0 with a 3-2 (4-11, 11-8, 8-11,
Taiwan’s men’s table tennis team won bronze on Saturday at this year’s International Table Tennis Federation World Team Table Tennis Championships in London, matching the country’s best-ever finish at the regular tournament. Consisting of Lin Yun-ju, Taiwan’s top-ranked player at world No. 7, Feng Yi-hsin, Kuo Guan-hong, Hong Jing-kai and Hsu Hsien-chia, the team won bronze after losing 0-3 to Japan in the semifinals. In the opening match, 24-year-old Lin played the first game against world No. 3 Tomokazu Harimoto 11-5, but ultimately lost the next three closely contested games 9-11, 10-12 and 10-12. Feng then faced world No. 8 Sora Matsushima in
Taiwanese fire dancer Yang Li-wei advanced to the final of Britain’s Got Talent this weekend after receiving a Golden Buzzer during her live semi-final performance. Yang, a member of Taiwan’s Coming True Fire Group, awed judges and audiences with a high-intensity fire performance featuring flaming umbrellas, fire swallowing and spinning metal structures balanced with her legs. Judge Simon Cowell praised Yang as a star, while guest judge KSI reacted with amazement before pressing the Golden Buzzer, sending her to the finals. The dance group wrote on social media that the Golden Buzzer was “the highest honor” on the talent show, adding: “Twenty-three years
As Super Rugby fast approaches its playoff season it finds itself racing toward a reckoning with many issues that threaten the southern hemisphere tournament. A group of stakeholders met in the New Zealand city of Christchurch late last month to address problems that are making the future of the 31-year-old competition increasingly tenuous. The discussion was made more urgent by the decision by the owners of Moana Pasifika to fold the Auckland-based club for financial reasons. That followed the closure of the Melbourne Rebels at the end of the 2024 season, likewise because of financial difficulties. Problems addressed included player retention as more
RSS