The Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers on Saturday moved to fourth in P.League+ standings with a 93-80 victory over the Taoyuan Pilots at the Hsinchu County Stadium.
American shooting guard Michael Efevberha set the tone with a 28-point explosion in the first half, nailing 10 of 13 shots, including all six from beyond the arc, finishing the game with 30 points and 13 rebounds.
“I just wanted to get us our third win in a row... We played really good team defense and we were moving the ball,” Efevberha said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu
The win — the Lioneers’ first since they on Wednesday announced a sponsorship deal with Toplus and changed their name — improved Hsinchu’s record in the six-team league to 3-4.
The team’s first three-game winning stretch since January was encapsulated by Efevberha’s rebounds on the offensive end.
His first three games with the team were “like pre-season,” as he had not played five-on-five basketball for about eight months, he said.
“I know I’m the oldest on the team, but I figure if I go out and show them how hard I played defense then they’ll follow my lead,” he said. “They’ve been doing it, and our defense has been a lot better since when I first got here.”
The Pilots fell to fifth in the league, one game behind the Lioneers.
Elsewhere on Saturday, the New Taipei Kings outhustled the Taipei Fubon Braves 111-106 courtesy of a 44-point game by Jeremy Lin in front of a 6,540 sellout crowd at Xinzhuang Gymnasium.
Lin drained 17 points en route to a season-high performance, and helped the Kings overcome a 17-point deficit in the last quarter for the win.
The 7-1 Kings are tied for first with the Formosa Dreamers.
In the T1 League, the Kaohsiung Aquas handed the Taipei Mars their third straight loss with a 114-98 win in Taipei on the back of Jason Brickman’s super triple-double.
The Filipino-American point guard logged 31 points, 12 boards and 16 assists, while scoring his 1,000th point in the league.
Brickman has dished out at least 10 assists in seven consectuve games, and is leading the league with 13.2 per game.
Meanwhile, the New Taipei CTBC DEA trounced the Tainan TSG GhostHawks 108-91, led by Viktor Gaddefors’ 28 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
‘TOUGH TO BREATHE’: Tunisian three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur suffered an asthma attack in her 7-5, 6-3 victory over Colombia’s Camila Osorio Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday cruised into the second round of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Iga Swiatek romped into a third-round women’s singles showdown with Emma Raducanu and Taylor Fritz was just as emphatic in his pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title. Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, the third seeds, defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Olivia Nicholls of Britain 7-5, 6-2 in 90 minutes in Melbourne. Ostapenko and Hsieh — who won the women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the Australian Open last year — hit 25 winners and converted five of nine break points to set
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
RSS