The Kaohsiung Aquas on Saturday rallied in the final minute of the T1 League opener to edge the Taiwan Beer Herobears 107-106 in a nail-biter in Taipei.
The game at the University of Taipei’s Tianmu campus gymnasium was the opener of the new six-team league’s inaugural season. The 3,456 fans in attendance, about 80 percent of capacity, were treated to a game of huge swings decided in its final seconds.
The Herobears were up by four with less than 90 seconds remaining, when the Aquas’ Filipino-American guard Jason Brickman nailed a three-pointer to narrow the deficit to 104-103.
Photo:Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
A lay-up by Herobears captain Chiang Yu-an widened the lead to three, but American Ferrakohn Hall pulled the Aquas even at 106 with a bomb from behind the arc.
With 10 seconds left, Brickman drew the defense toward him before dishing the ball to Lithuanian Mindaugas Kupsas, who was fouled while taking a shot. Kupsas sank the first free-throw, but missed the second, giving the Aquas a 107-106 lead.
The Herobears grabbed the rebound, but missed a desperation shot just before the buzzer.
Herobears center Diamond Stone of the US led all scorers with 44 points and also snagged 13 rebounds.
Brickman, known for his passing and playmaking ability, led with eight assists.
Aquas head coach Brendan Joyce, the former head coach of the Australian Opals, said he was happy with the win and how the team’s plans came together.
“We talked about having to play to the last possession before the game, and it came down to that, so I’m very happy for the players,” Joyce said. “It’s our first win, but it’s only the beginning.”
The Herobears had sped off to a 14-point lead after the first quarter, but found themselves down by 10 after a disastrous third quarter in which they only scored 11 points.
They came back and gave themselves a shot to win in the final minutes before the Aquas rallied.
In the league’s second game, the Herobears on Saturday face the CTBC DEA in New Taipei City.
The T1 League is one of two professional basketball leagues in Taiwan, along with the P.League+, which starts on Saturday in Taipei.
Jannik Sinner continued his quest to become the first man in history to win five Masters 1000 tournaments in a row with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Danish qualifier Elmer Moller at the Madrid Open on Sunday. The world leader extended his winning streak to 19 matches, a run that began early March in Indian Wells, and he has captured 24 consecutive victories at the Masters 1000 level, dating back to the Paris Masters last October. Searching for a maiden title at this level on clay, Sinner advanced to the round of 16 at the Caja Magica with a 77-minute performance against
When Paddy Dwyer arrived in China in 1976, crowds jostled to catch a glimpse of him and his companions — the first Western soccer team to play in the country. China was emerging from the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, and on the brink of market reforms that would take the country from economic stagnation to explosive growth. “All we could see was lines of people running beside our bus, trying to look in the windows, to see their first visual of a white person,” he said. “It was all bicycles,” he said. “There were very few cars to be seen.” Dwyer,
Tennis players are facing an unexpected opponent at the Madrid Open. A stomach virus or food poisoning has affected Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Marin Cilic and others, raising concerns. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka avoided an upset by Naomi Osaka on the court on Monday and said she is trying to avoid illness by sticking to a diet of chicken breasts, rice and salad. The rumor among the players was bad shrimp tacos were to blame. Sabalenka knocked on wood for luck and said, “So far, so good. I heard that I have to avoid those tacos,” she laughed, adding “I stick to the
Some of Clearlake Capital Group’s largest investors are growing increasingly concerned about how much time the company’s co-founders are spending on sports investments as they have struggled to complete the fundraising for the private equity firm’s latest flagship fund. One of Clearlake’s co-founders, Behdad Eghbali, has been spending what some investors described as a disproportionate amount of time on the firm’s investment in Chelsea Football Club in recent months. Now, co-founder Jose E. Feliciano and his wife, Kwanza Jones, are nearing a record US$3.9 billion deal to acquire the San Diego Padres. That personal investment by Feliciano has set off the latest
RSS