Top-ranked Pure Youth Construction avoided what would have been an embarrassing defeat against Bank of Taiwan by outscoring the red-hot Bankers 9-3 in the final three minutes to escape with a 65-62 win at the Banciao Gymnasium in New Taipei City last night.
Tsai Wen-cheng saved his best for last by netting his team’s final five points to bail the four-time defending champions out of a big jam that saw them squander a 20-point advantage at halftime.
They trailed the Bankers by as many as three points with less than three minutes to play, before pulling off a valiant 9-3 run to claim the victory.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“The shot became open just as coach Ben drew it up on the board, so I took it as soon as I could, and the rest is history,” Tsai said of his game-turning three-pointer — a beautiful basket off the backboard after the Builders captain received a perfect feed from Darian Townes.
Tsai grabbed a clutch defensive rebound down the other end of the floor on the ensuing play, before nailing a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to seal the deal.
Winners of three of their four previous meeting, the Builders came out firing, with Keh Chi-hao connecting on three straight three-pointers in the opening frame to open up a 22-11 lead after the first quarter.
A 6-2 run by the Bankers at the start of the second quarter reduced the deficit to fewer than 10, before Pure Youth answered with a 10-0 run of their own late in the second to close out the first half with a 40-20 cushion.
Bank of Taiwan opened the second half with a quick 6-0 run and managed to get to within a dozen points by the end of the third, with Luke Nevill downing 10 in the quarter.
Nevill scored nine of the Bankers’ next 15 points in a 15-5 run to cut the deficit to two, before Lee Wei-che and Yu Chuan-an combined for five straight to give their team an unbelievable 59-56 lead with 2 minutes, 50 seconds remaining.
That was as close as the Bankers got, though, as Tsai took over from that point to salvage the victory.
Luxgens 78, Taiwan Beer 69
The Yulon Luxgens made it two wins in a row by topping Taiwan Beer in the second game in New Taipei City last night to close out their weekend with a 2-0 record.
Lu “Male Model” Cheng-ju erupted for 11 points in the third quarter, including a pair of three-pointers for the Automakers as they cracked open a 38-38 deadlock at the halftime with a 22-17 scoring differential in the third quarter to claim the lead for good.
Lu finished with 26 points.
Taiwan Beer’s failure to keep Yulon off the glass led to a 47-39 rebound advantage for the Automakers, which proved costly for the Brew Crew, who missed a golden opportunity to keep pace with top-ranked Pure Youth, who went three wins clear at the top of the standings.
In the next round of games on Thursday, the Fubon Braves take on the Dacin Tigers, before Bank of Taiwan face the Yulon Luxgens in the late game.
On Friday, Taiwan Beer take on the Fubon Braves in the early game in Banciao, before Pure Youth Construction tackle Kinmen Kaoliang.
Champagne corks often pop and loud, boisterous cheers are usually heard around Constitution Dock when the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race line honors winner finishes in the Tasmanian state capital. There were no such celebrations this year when the defending champions on board LawConnect won the race in the early hours of yesterday morning, as it came about 24 hours after two sailors died on separate boats in sail boom accidents two hours apart on a storm-ravaged first night of the race. LawConnect, a 100-foot super maxi skippered by Australian tech millionaire Christian Beck, sailed up the River Derwent at just after 2:30am.
‘BOWLINE’ AND ‘ARCTOS’: Roy Quaden was hit on the head by a boom, while Nick Smith was struck by the main sheet and thrown across the boat amid rough seas Two sailors have been killed in separate incidents in the treacherous Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, officials said yesterday, as a string of yachts retired in powerful winds and high seas. One of the crew members, 55-year-old Roy Quaden on Flying Fish Arctos, was hit on the head by a boom as the fleet raced down the New South Wales coast, race organizers said. The other man, 65-year-old Nick Smith, was struck by the main sheet aboard Bowline and thrown across the boat, said David Jacobs, vice commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. “Unfortunately, he hit his head on the winch, and
Liverpool on Thursday powered seven points clear at the top of the Premier League as the title favorites survived a scare in their 3-1 win against Leicester City, while Bruno Fernandes was sent off in Manchester United’s dismal 2-0 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Erling Haaland missed a penalty as crisis-torn Manchester City failed to end their dismal run with a 1-1 draw against Everton, but it was United’s travails and Liverpool’s remarkable run that took center-stage. Arne Slot’s side were shocked by Jordan Ayew’s early strike at Anfield, but the leaders recovered their composure to equalize just before the interval through Cody
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
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