Luke Nevill easily won the nods from members of the Basketball Writers’ Association with an outstanding weekend of play last week to land the league’s Player of the Week honor.
The Bank of Taiwan big man, who returned for his second tour of duty at the start of this season after spending his first one with the formerly Taiwan Mobile Leopards two years ago, showed why he is one of the premier centers in the league by netting 23.5 points and 14.5 rebounds per game against playoff-contending opponents to lead the Bankers to a pair of sound wins.
“[Nevill] has always shown a willingness to learn our system and work with our players since he first joined us and his continuing improvement is a big reason why we are doing much better now compared to before,” a very happy Bank of Taiwan head coach Hung Chun-che said of his hired gun from Australia earlier this week.
The match on Thursday last week between the Bankers and the Dacin Tigers was case in point as Nevill outfought his counterpart Bryan Davis of the US with a season-high 31 points and 16 rebounds to lift his team to a big win in overtime against the third-place Tigers who had won three of their past four heading into the contest.
“What makes [Nevill] so special for us is that his on-court presence makes our other guys like Chen Hsuan-hsiang, Chang Po-sheng and Lee Wei-che play that much better,” Hung added.
Nevill and the rest of the Banking Corp have a chance to extend their winning streak this week with three tough matches ahead, starting with tonight’s confrontation against Kinmen Kaoliang, followed by Saturday’s battle against the Fubon Braves, before Sunday’s showdown against top-ranked Pure Youth Construction.
With the end of the regular season just three weeks away and only a half-game separating the Bankers (fifth place) and the Braves (sixth place), this week promises to be crucial for the financial wizards who could clinch a playoff berth by winning all three games of the week.
Tonight’s Other Contest
Following the match between the Bankers and the Distillers at the Banciao Gymnasium in New Taipei City, Pure Youth are to take on the Braves in the second game where the Braves will feature the return of the league’s top scorer Earl Barron who missed all of last week to nurse a muscle strain.
The Braves will have to find at least one other player to share the scoring burden with Barron against the Builders’ renown pressure defense to have a chance at the win as the four-time defending champs will undoubtedly exploit their tendency to be a one-man team.
Former NBA sensation Jeremy Lin, recently recruited by the P.League+’s Kaohsiung Steelers, arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday. Lin arrived at the airport at 5:46am on a China Airlines flight from the US before leaving the airport via a VIP terminal. Lin, whose parents are from Taiwan, is believed to be observing Taiwan’s “0+7” self-initiated COVID-19 prevention program for arrivals. Lin had said earlier in the week that he would be practicing social distancing from yesterday through Saturday, meaning he would not participate in games or visit the Steelers’ home court during that period. The Steelers said in a statement that Lin would
Taiwan on Saturday swept Mexico in the first day of their Davis Cup World Group playoff tie, while three-time Grand Slam winner Stan Wawrinka rolled back the clock to secure a thrilling win for Switzerland over Germany in their qualifier. World No. 110 Tseng Chun-hsing beat Mexico’s Cesar Ramirez 6-4, 6-3 in straight sets on a clay court in Metepec, Mexico, while Hsu Yu-hsiou of Changhua City dominated Alan Fernando Rubio Fierros 7-5, 6-3. Their showdown started under controversy after a group of Mexican players last week said they would not compete as they were not given enough notice about the date
INTO THE WILD: After becoming the first Asian to finish the 13-day test in 2013, Chen said he was excited to return to the Canadian wilderness and do what he loves most Taiwanese runner Tommy Chen on Saturday returned to the Yukon Arctic Ultra 10 years after finishing third in the self-supported 700km race. Battling through harsh terrain and temperatures of minus-15°C, Chen yesterday had covered about 69km since the start of the race at 10:30am on Saturday, placing him 13th out of 24 competitors, the event’s Web site showed. Chen, who became the first Asian to finish the event in Canada’s Yukon Territory in 2013 at the age of 27, still has another 25km to reach Dog Grave Lake, the third of the race’s 12 checkpoints. Chen was racing on foot, while some chose
Taiwanese shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday won the men’s singles title at the Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters in Bangkok, after outdueling the fourth-seeded defending champion Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong. World No. 35 Lin topped world No. 18 Ng 21-17, 21-14 in their first-ever matchup that lasted 37 minutes. It was the 23-year-old Lin’s first title of the season and his second BWF World Tour Super 300 championship win after capturing the Yonex US Open in 2019. Ng was the men’s singles champion in the Thailand Masters’ previous edition in 2020. As a Super 300 event, the fifth tier of professional badminton tournaments
RSS