Kinmen Kaoliang put up a stout defense yesterday for a 77-55 win over the Dacin Tigers at the Taoyuan Arena, handing the Tigers their fourth straight defeat of the Super Basketball League (SBL) season.
Kinmen’s American duo, Walter Sharpe and Paris Bass, led the charge to their third victory, after a loss to the Yulon Dinos in the season opener. Kinmen shared second place on the league table.
The Americans both put up double-doubles, as Sharpe scored 10 points with 16 rebounds and Bass scored 19 points with 10 rebounds, while Kinmen guard Yu Huan-ya contributed 12 points with five rebounds.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Facing them was Tigers center Anthony McClain, who scored 19 points with 14 rebounds, the third player to put up a double-double in the game.
Winless after four games, the Tigers are at the bottom of the table.
Their woes were compounded by O.J. Mayo, the Tigers’ other American player and seven-year NBA veteran, having to sit out this week due to a knee injury.
In results from Saturday, Palestinian player Sani Sakakini put up 30 points and 11 rebounds, leading the Yulon Dinos to a 83-79 victory over Pauian Archiland at the Taoyuan Arena.
Michael Holyfield, Pauian Archiland’s American center, netted 22 points and pulled down 14 rebounds for a double-double, but it was not enough to pull his team out ahead.
After the game, Sakakini said that he twisted his left ankle in the first quarter, adding: “But I played through the pain and finished the game. Our head coach, Lee Chih-yi, had complete confidence in me, and I wanted to help the team win.”
“Because of Lee, I came to Taiwan to join the team, but many things are unfamiliar to me — I need to make some adjustments. The Yulon Dinos want to win the SBL title, so I must go all out in every game,” he added.
In Saturday’s other game, Taiwan Beer crushed Bank of Taiwan 103-59 at the Taoyuan Arena.
On the international circuit, Taiwan’s Formosa Dreamers prevailed over Hong Kong Eastern 82-80 on Sunday last week in their ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) game at the Southern Arena in Hong Kong.
The win made two victories in two starts for the Dreamers in this campaign, a complete turnaround from last season when they had one win and 19 losses and landed at the bottom of the table with the league’s nine other teams above them.
The Dreamers opened the ABL season by surprising hosts the Singapore Slingers with a 77-73 victory on Nov. 18 at the OCBC Arena in Singapore.
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