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
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