Chen "Airman" Hsin-an's 20 points and six rebounds, capped by a thunderous slam in the closing seconds of the game, led the Scarlet Knights to a 101-94 win over the White Knights in the Super Basketball League's All-Star Game at the Taipei Arena on Saturday night.
The Yulon Dinos power forward, widely considered the most dominant player in the league, was named the game's Most Valuable Player for his all-around contribution to the Scarlet Knight's impressive victory.
"I would like to thanks the fans for their support in coming out to cheer us on," Chen said after the game while posing with the MVP trophy and a check for NT$16,888 in prize money.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
Behind several big three-pointers from the perimeters, the Scarlet Knights, made up of the top players from the Dinos, the Dacin Tigers, Pure Youth Constructions and the Bank of Taiwan, took a 23-19 lead after the opening quarter.
They increased their lead to 57-46 at the half, thanks largely to six more long-range bombs during the second quarter.
Monstrous dunks from Jonathan Sanders and stellar shooting from Wu Yong-ren allowed the White Knights (consisting of players from Taiwan Beer, the Taiwan Mobile Leopards and the dmedia Numen) to tie the game at 80-all early in the fourth quarter.
But the outcome of the game was never in doubt, as the Scarlet Knights soon regained a sizable advantage and defended it for the rest of the game.
Four players scored in double-digits for the victors, with Su Yi-jeh (Tigers), Chang Chih-fong (Tigers) and Hsu Chih-chiang (Bank of Taiwan) each chipping in a dozen to go along with Chen's 20.
Sanders (Numen) topscored with 22 points and 19 rebounds, but it was not enough as the White Knights fell short by seven.
Taiwan Beer trio Ho Sho-cheng, Lin "The Beast" Chih-jeh and Wu Dai-hao contributed 17, 11 and 10 points respectively.
SLAM DUNK CONTEST
In the highly anticipated slam dunk contest, a blindfolded Sanders converted on a pair of tremendous throw-downs to outperform fellow teammate Lee Jung-wei and Pure Youth's Doug Creighton.
Sanders, the runner-up in last year's contest, dunked his way from a six-man preliminary round into a three-man final before claiming the title and NT$16,888 in prize money.
THREE-POINT SHOOTOUT
The Leopards' Wu Cheng-yu found his range for a record-tying 22 points to win the three-point shooting contest.
Wu, who last won the title three seasons ago, barely made it into the final round with 18 points before peaking in the final to beat out three other contestants. He was awarded a total of NT$22,000 for his effort: NT$1,000 for each point scored.
Two-time defending champ Lee Hsueh-lin of the Dinos just missed out on a chance to make it three in a row as his 17-point effort in the preliminaries was one shy of the qualification mark.
BUMRAH WATCH: Captain Jasprit Bumrah left the SCG for scans for back spasms and although he returned to the ground, there was no word on if he would play Rishabh Pant’s blistering counterattack yesterday capped a chaotic second day of the fifth and final Test between Australia and India, with 15 wickets falling and the star bowler of the series leaving the Sydney Cricket Ground with an ambulance escort. Yet the Border-Gavaskar trophy still remains very much in the balance as India reached 141-6, holding a 145-run lead over Australia with three days remaining. “Low-scoring games like this, it just heightens the pressure within it, so long way still to go,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said. “There’s gonna be plenty of cricket, so we’ll see what happens.” Australia were bowled out for
Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan yesterday dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup with world No. 2 Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open. The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament. In Sydney, women’s world No. 2 Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group. The US and
HAT-TRICK PREP: World No. 1 Sabalenka clinched her first win of the season, as she aims to become the first woman in 20 years to win three Australian Opens in succession Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Taylor Fritz yesterday all clocked impressive wins as tennis powerhouses Italy and the US surged into the quarter-finals of the mixed-team United Cup. World No. 3 Gauff swept past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 to avenge a loss at the Paris Olympics, while Fritz took care of Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 in searing Perth heat. That was enough to put the Americans — last year’s winners — into a last-eight clash with China today, while Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan today are to meet defending champions Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, in the other Perth quarter-final. In Sydney, the in-form
Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek yesterday beat Elena Rybakina in straight sets to take Poland into the final of the mixed-teams United Cup with victory over Kazakhstan. Last year’s runners-up face the US today for the title in Sydney after they beat the Czech Republic in the other semi-final. “This win makes me really proud,” Swiatek said after seeing off Rybakina 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to give Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie. It was a statement of intent from the world number two with the first major of the year to start on Jan. 12. “It is perfect preparation for the
RSS