The New Taipei Kings yesterday survived the Kaohsiung Steelers and 2013 NBA No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett to take possession of first place in the P.League+.
The Steelers, at the bottom of the six-team league, had a road upset on their mind as they took a 54-52 lead at halftime with 25 points and nine rebounds from Bennett, who finished the game with 36 points and 13 rebounds.
Captain Lu Cheng-ju gave the visitors a further boost early in the third quarter when he scored the 6,000th point of his career in Taiwan. A total of 5,743 of those came in the semi-professional Super Basketball League, Taiwan’s main professional league for 20 years until the P.League+ started in 2020.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
The Kings pushed ahead to end the period 81-75, before finishing the game 105-94, improving their record to 13-6 to edge past the Fubon Braves at the top of the standings.
Calling his side’s defense subpar in the first half, Kings head coach Ryan Marchand said they had to adjust to take charge of the game.
“I know over the course of 48 minutes there’s going to be a couple of bad stretches, but I think we’ve been shortening those stretches and that really helped us in the second half,” he said.
Former NBA veteran DeAndre Liggins, playing more aggressively than he had in recent games, recorded a double-double of 22 points and 13 rebounds.
“For him [Liggins], it’s just picking his spots. You know he’s not a scorer per se, he’s a little bit more of a creator on offense, but [we’re] showing him when he can be aggressive and when he needs to pull back,” Marchand said.
In yesterday’s games, the Hsinchu JKO Lioneers beat the Braves 114-103, while the Formosa Taishin Dreamers beat the Taoyuan Pilots 111-77.
On Friday, the league fined the Pilots’ Devin Robinson of the US and Lioneers forward Lin Yi-huei NT$25,000 for cheap shots taken during Hsinchu’s 116-97 win over Taoyuan.
Lin was also suspended for two games for instigating the altercation by hitting Robinson in the groin area early in the third quarter.
Robinson retaliated on the team’s next defensive possession, waiting for Lin to drive to the basket and then smacking him in the face well after he had passed the ball to a teammate. Lin fell to the ground and had to be helped off the court, while Robinson was ejected.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite