FORMER baseball player Mack Joyner picked up his first basketball winners' medal when he led Winling to a 115-92 victory over Fukien at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium last night to secure the Hong Kong Division A1 league title.
Joyner, who started his professional sports career with the Montreal Expos in the Major League, scored 22 of his 32 points in the first half to give Winling a commanding 66-44 lead at the interval.
'Basketball is my first love and baseball is only a secondary sport, but I took the first offer that came along and it was the Expos which drafted me out of college,' said the 31-year-old centre.
'I've played four years of professional baseball before I got a basketball offer and it took me six years to win my first title.' Winling finished the regular season in fifth place but turned on the power in the play-off round by beating top clubs Suntex, Seapower and Regal in their first three outings. Needing a win over Fukien to wrap up the title, Winling stamped their authority by shooting to a 12-4 lead after three minutes and never looked back as Joyner and Co went on a scoring spree.
Joyner topscored for Winling with 32 points while fellow-Americans Parish Hickmann scored 31, Shon Tarver 23 and Anthony Taylor 21. But highest scorer for the game was Fukien's Brian Camper with 33 points.
Top seeds Suntex beat Seapower 84-82 in the second game of last night's double-header programme to take the runners-up trophy.