Three out of four home teams scored their opening victories in
the first round best-of-five playoffs of the China Basketball
Association (CBA) league which reeled off Wednesday evening.
The Beijing Ducks buried visiting?Yunnan?Bulls 113-104
as Mengke Bateer beat his left knee injuries to score game-high 48
points and grab 14 rebounds to lead from 23-6 before the visitors
clawed back to 29-17 in the first period.
The visitors managed to narrow the margin to three points 82-79
before Zhang Yunsong hit a buzzer-beater three-pointer to enter the
fourth period where three 3-pointers ensured the victory for the
home side.
Walton scored the team-best 36 points for Yunnan.
In Guangdong,?the Southern Tigers?started with a 6-0
run and finished the first period at 27-all before sailing to their
home victory 121-91 over Jilin Northeast Tigers as they enlarged
the lead from 56-47 at half time and 81-69 into the last
period.
Johnson scored game-high 32 points for Guangdong, while
teammates Yi Jianlian and Wang Shipeng added 24 and 23 points
respectively.
Although Tigers have six players in double digit, 14 points from
Wang Bo and Nie Jinqiang apiece were the highest.
In Ningbo, Bayi Rockets outscored Liaoning Hunters 110-94 after
Li Nan led the team with 32 points on 10-of-19 shots, including
three 3-pointers, and five of his teammates contributed double
digits.
Liu Xiangtao led the visitors with 26 points.
Xinjiang?was the only team that lost at home in the opening
round as they lost to Jiangsu?119-122 in overtime where they
were outscored 9-6.
(Xinhua News Agency?March 23, 2006)