Taipei, Jan. 6 (CNA) Taiwan's semi-professional Women's Super Basketball League (WSBL) is set to tip off its 2022 season this month and will allow overseas players of ethnic-Chinese heritage to compete for the first time, according to the Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA).
The first round of the four-team WSBL, now in its 17th edition, will see Taiwan Power face Chunghwa Telecom at 6 p.m. on Jan. 17 at Taipei Gymnasium, followed by Taiyuan Textile against Cathay Life, with the latter looking to secure its 12th championship in a row.
A total of 36 games will be played in Taipei and Banqiao during the regular season, before moving on to the playoffs scheduled for May 3-6.
Due to an amendment in the league's basketball club management rules and regulations, teams will be allowed to enlist players of ethnic-Chinese and Taiwanese heritage for the upcoming season, according to a CTBA statement Wednesday.
Taiyuan Textile has enlisted and registered the U.S. former University of California, Davis standout Sophia Song as the first overseas player of ethnic-Chinese heritage to play in the league, the CTBA said.
It is hoped that more overseas ethnic-Chinese players will come to Taiwan to play in the WSBL to strengthen the league's competitive level, the CTBA said.
The 23-year-old 180-cm tall Monterey Park, California native Song averaged 5.6 points and 2.3 rebounds per game as a senior for her school in the NCAA Division I level, draining 31 of her 42 buckets from beyond the arc.
After graduating with a degree in psychology in 2020, Song later joined England's Manchester Metropolitan Mystics of the Women's British Basketball League (WBBL), the United Kingdom's top-level women's basketball league.
Song posted an average of 9.3 points and five rebounds per game in the league's 2020-2021 season of its flagship competition WBBL Championship.
