Taipei Times
Date: Mar 31, 2015
By: Grant Dexter  /  Staff reporter

The Clouded Leopards romped to a comfortable victory in the opening game of the Taipei Ice

Hockey League finals series, winning 7-3 over the Black Bears at the Iceland Arena on Sunday night.

Three first-period goals by Kevin Chen and brothers Eric and Andy Shen provided an early buffer.

Chen made the lead four, opening the scoring 4 minutes, 8 seconds into the second period and Dylan Liu also got on the scoresheet, although the Bears made some inroads with goals to Jack Lu and Chris Hsu to make it 5-2 going into the third.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 30, 2015
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AP, KEY BISCAYNE, Florida

Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Flavia Pennetta of Italy cruised into the second round of the

women’s doubles at the Miami Open on Saturday, while Taiwanese-Serbian duo Chan Hao-ching and Jelena Jankovic also advanced in a tough opening encounter.

Fourth seeds Hsieh and Pennetta, playing just their second match as a partnership, eased to a 6-1, 6-3 victory over wild-cards Alize Cornet of France and Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in just 47 minutes at Crandon Park.

The Taiwanese world No. 9 and the Italian world No. 15 saved four of five break-point opportunities and converted five of seven to complete a comfortable victory and set up a second-round clash with Monica Niculescu of Romania and Alexandra Panova of Russia, who defeated Lisa Raymond of the US and Sam Stosur of Australia 6-2, 6-3 in the first round.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 30, 2015
By: Paul Huang  /  Contributing reporter

The Chinatrust Brothers rode the right arm of Wang Tzu-an, who tossed seven shutout innings

of four-hit ball to blank the Lamigo Monkeys 6-0 at the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium last night.

The win not only gave Chinatrust a 2-1 edge in the north’s weekend series, but it also improved their season record to 4-3, good enough for second place in the standings.

After the Monkeys missed a golden scoring opportunity in the top of the first in which they stranded two at the corners, the hosts went to work against Ramon Garcia by plating three off the Monkeys starter in the bottom of the second to grab an early 3-0 lead.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 30, 2015
By: Paul Huang  /  Contributing reporter

Top seeds Pure Youth Construction bounced back from a tough loss in the series opener on

Saturday night with an 85-67 win over Taiwan Beer in Game 2 of the SBL finals series at the Kaohsiung Fengshan Gymnasium last night to even up the best-of-seven series at 1-1.

Three three-pointers by Chen Jian-en in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter sparked a 13-2 run by the Builders that proved to be the difference as they shook off a pesky Brew Crew who rallied from two double-digit deficits earlier in the contest to stay ahead for good.

“I’d like to thank my teammates for encouraging me to keep on shooting, their confidence was a big help to me,” Chen said.

Chen’s timely surge helped the three-time defending champions avoid what would have been a 0-2 hole in their quest for an unprecedented fourth straight title.

A sloppy start by the Builders’ defense paved the way for the Brew Crew in the early going as they took a 16-14 lead after one quarter of play behind six quick points by Liu Cheng, but Pure Youth regrouped by converting six of nine from behind the three-point arc to outscore their opponents 29-19 in a dominant second quarter to claim a 43-35 advantage at halftime.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/03/29
By: Yang Ming-chu and Jeffrey Wu

Taipei, March 29 (CNA) Taiwanese pitcher Kuo Chun-lin (郭俊麟) got off to a shaky start in his debut in Japan’s professional baseball league but survived and was credited with the win in the Saitama Seibu Lions’ 5-4 victory over the Orix Buffaloes on Sunday.

Kuo, who signed with the Lions after impressing at the 21U Baseball World Cup in Taiwan in November 2014, retired the Buffaloes in order in the first inning but nearly didn’t make it out of the second.

The Buffaloes quickly tagged the 23-year-old rookie for three runs on two singles, an RBI sacrifice fly by Takahiro Okada, and a two-run homer by Eiichi Koyano on a hanging breaking ball, to take a 3-1 lead.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 29, 2015
By: Paul Huang  /  Contributing reporter

Taiwan Beer pulled off a major upset against top-seeded Pure Youth Construction by upending

the three-time defending champions 78-67 in Game 1 of the Super Basketball League Championship Finals at the Fengshan Gymnasium in Kaohsiung last night to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Chou Po-hsun’s timely nine points in the decisive fourth led a 23-10 run in favor of the Brew Crew, who trailed by as many as 11 midway through the third in a game that featured several big swings.

“Our defense did a great job shutting down their perimeter game in the fourth, which gave us a chance for the comeback,” Chou said after the game.

His five straight points with less than three minutes to play was the nail in the coffin for the favorites.     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 28, 2015
By: AP, CARLSBAD, California

Mirim Lee birdied all four par-five holes and finished with a bogey-free seven-under 65 on

Thursday to take the first-round lead at the Kia Classic.

Taiwanese former No. 1 Yani Tseng, winless in 70 starts since her victory in the 2012 event at nearby La Costa, shot a six-under 66 for second place.

Lee took the outright lead with an eight-foot putt on the par-five fifth — her 14th hole in her afternoon round at Aviara — and hit a wedge to 3 feet to set up her final birdie on the par-five eighth. The 24-year-old South Korean player won two LPGA Tour events last year.

Lee had only 25 putts, holing 40-footers for birdies on Nos. 16 and 17.

She struggled last week in Phoenix, finishing 77th in the Founders Cup.

“I practiced a lot this week,” Lee said. “I changed the grip.”     [FULL  STORY]

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 27, 2015
By: Dave Carroll  /  Staff reporter, with AP and AFP, MIAMI

A neck injury saw Lu Yen-hsun’s Miami Open challenge end almost before it had begun on

Wednesday as the Taiwanese No. 1 crashed out of the first round of the men’s singles.

World No. 62 Lu was trailing 1-5 to world No. 44 Donald Young when the injury forced the Taiwanese player to retire in just 23 minutes in Miami, with the American progressing to the second round, where he faces third seed Andy Murray of Britain.

Lu’s early departure means Taiwanese hopes in Florida now rest on the shoulders of the women, with Hsieh Su-wei and Chan Hao-ching hoping to improve on their performances in Indian Wells, California, two weeks ago, when they both crashed out in the first round of the women’s doubles.     [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/03/25
By: Elaine Hou

Taipei, March 25 (CNA) A total of six teams from home and abroad are competing in the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship Division III Group A games, which will run through this weekend in Taipei.

One of the teams is from Israel, which played South Africa Wednesday.

The 20-member Israeli team, which played a lot of offense during the game, beat South Africa 5-2.     [FULL  STORY]