Kinmen Kaoliang guard Yu Huan-ya (于煥亞), whose hot touch often racks up key baskets down the stretch, was named most valuable player of the Super Basketball League’s (SBL) All-Star Game on Saturday, while Dacin Tigers import player O.J. Mayo showed off his NBA pedigree by winning the three-point shooting contest.
Yu led the White team to a 146-140 triumph over the Black team at this year’s all-star contest at the Taoyuan Stadium.
Yu’s two three-pointers in the final minute made the difference for the Whites and made him the All-Star Game’s most valuable player.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
In the three-point shooting contest, O.J. Mayo, who played in the NBA for eight seasons, racked up 20 points, beating out four Taiwanese players who had advanced to the final round.
When the first half of the SBL season wrapped up last month, Taiwan’s two “Brew Crew” clubs topped the table, with Kinmen Kaoliang’s 16 wins placing them in first and Taiwan Beer’s 15 victories landing them in second, followed closely by the Fubon Braves (13-10), the Yulon Luxgen Dinos (13-12) and the Dacin Tigers (11-11).
Pauian Archiland (10-13) are currently in sixth place, while Bank of Taiwan (5-19) remain decidedly at the bottom of the table.
After a month-long hiatus due to the winter break and the Lunar New Year holiday, the second half of SBL season picks up on Thursday at the Taoyuan Arena when the Dacin Tigers take on Pauian Archiland at 6pm, followed by Taiwan Beer and the Fubon Braves at 8pm.
On Friday, Bank of Taiwan challenge Kinmen Kaoliang, followed by the Yulon Luxgen Dinos and Pauian Archiland.
The front-runners, Kinmen Kaoliang and Taiwan Beer, face off in the early game on Saturday, followed by the Dacin Tigers and the Fubon Braves.
On Sunday, Pauian Archiland entertains Bank of Taiwan in the day’s first match-up, followed by the Yulon Dinos and the Dacin Tigers.
ASEAN BASKETBALL LEAGUE
In ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) action at the Changhua County Stadium yesterday evening, the Formosa Dreamers defeated the Westports Malaysia Dragons 82-76, after losing 72-74 to the Saigon Heat in an earlier contest.
The Dreamers’ teamwork and passing kept them out in front of the Dragons the entire game, and they led by 13 points going into the fourth quarter.
The Dragons mounted a rally, racking up three-pointers to make it a four-point contest, but the Dreamers defense held on, hitting all their free-throws in the final minutes and capping a fast break in the last six seconds with a slam dunk.
The Dreamers (11-6) are in second place so far this season and could still challenge the San Miguel Alab Pilipinas (14-3) atop the ABL table.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite