Defending champions the Taipei Fubon Braves routed the Hsinchu Jko Lioneers by more than 20 points in Game 2 of the P.League+ Finals on Monday night to tie the series 1-1.
The Braves, winners of the 2020-2021 inaugural season of Taiwan’s professional basketball league, overpowered the Lioneers 102-81 in the second game of their best-of-seven series.
Leading for most of the game at the Hsinchu County Stadium — in front of 7,200 spectators — the Braves were able to establish a comfortable lead of 62-41 by halftime.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Dominating in rebounds and shooting, the Taipei-based team charged ahead to pocket the win.
Braves forward Mike Singletary, Most Valuable Player (MVP) of last season’s Final series, led all scorers with a double-double of 33 points and 18 rebounds, including shooting five of five from the free-throw line.
Lioneers center Sim Bhullar, the league’s MVP for April, led his team with 22 points and 11 rebounds.
After the game, Singletary said his team had made every effort to keep up their defense and offense, because their opponents were a talented team looking for opportunities to turn the tables.
“Tonight, we kind of wanted to put a stranglehold on the game, take care of business, not let them come back, because they are a good team over there and they’ll keep fighting until the end,” he said.
The Braves had needed to place Game 1 in more of a “stranglehold,” as the Lioneers pulled off a 102-101 victory on Saturday.
Known as one of the most prolific players in the league, Singletary said the Finals are when he needs to step up and lead the Braves.
“It’s the Finals. This is the time we all dream about playing as kids: playing for a championship, playing for a trophy, playing for your team and playing for your fans,” Singletary said.
With the series tied, the Finals are to continue with Game 3 at the Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium tomorrow.
Standout Filipino college basketball player Ricci Rivero said he wants to start his professional career by playing in the P.League+ as opposed to other leagues in Asia because of the sizeable Philippine community in Taiwan, his new team the Taoyuan Pilots said on Monday. “There are nearly 150,000 Filipinos living and working in Taiwan, the mere thought of playing in front of them and being the first to represent them in one of Taiwan’s best basketball leagues is already a big motivation for me to choose Taiwan over other Asian basketball leagues,” Rivero said in a Taoyuan Pilots statement. Although
Taipei Municipal Fulin Elementary School’s baseball team yesterday beat South Korea in the regional final to win the right to represent the Asia-Pacific region in this year’s Little League Baseball World Series. The Taiwan team’s 1-0 victory over hosts South Korea was largely down to the excellent performance of starting pitcher Liao Kuan-shu, who pitched six scoreless innings, in which he only gave up two hits at Hwaseong Dream Park in South Korea. After Taiwan earned a single in the bottom of the second inning, Liao in the third hit a two-out double, helping to eke out a 1-0 victory, as they
Taiwanese badminton ace Tai Tzu-ying was knocked out of the Malaysia Open yesterday, losing her women’s singles semi-final against Chen Yufei of China 19-21, 21-13, 21-15. Despite two previous victories for second-seeded Tai against Chen this season — including her win in the final of the Thailand Open — fourth-seeded Chen dispatched the world No. 2 in 1 hour, 8 minutes at Kuala Lumpur’s Axiata Arena, securing a spot in the Super 750 tournament’s final. Tai won the opening game of the last-four matchup, scoring two consecutive points after the score was tied 19-19. However, she had a horrific points drought after the
Brandon Brown wanted a way to change the narrative behind the “Let’s go, Brandon” message after his first career NASCAR victory inadvertently fostered a chant that has been used to insult US President Joe Biden. Brown found that new message thanks to the family of an eight-year-old boy with autism. Brandon Brundidge of Cottage Grove, Minnesota, was on a spring-break trip to Houston in March when he saw signs with the “Let’s go, Brandon” phrase. He believed they were meant to encourage him, and consequently started trying activities he never attempted before, such as learning to swim and removing the training wheels
RSS