Liaoning Flying Leopards point guard Lester Hudson (L) defends against Zhejiang Golden Bulls' Samad Nikkhah Bahrami during the CBA Playoffs first round. (Photo : Getty Images)
Regular season leaders Liaoning Flying Leopards routed the Guangdong Southern Tigers, 103-88, at the Benxi Gymnasium on Sunday to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five semifinals showdown in the 2016 Chinese Basketball Association playoffs.
The Flying Leopards pulled off two straight wins over the Southern Tigers as they also won the opening game of the series, a close 116-114 overtime victory on Feb. 26, which means they only need to win one more game to advance in the finals of China's premier basketball league.
Guangdong put up a fight in the opening period of Game 2, though, unlike in the first game when Liaoning quickly buried the visitors in the first quarter so they had to fight back from as much as 14 points down to force the extension period, as reported by Xinhuanet.
In this match, Du Feng's boys were able to finish the first quarter at par with the hosts, 22-all, to give themselves a fighting chance in trying to tie the series to a game apiece.
However, Liaoning will not be denied as they dominated the rebounding battle to crush Guangdong in the middle quarters.
The first half ended with the Flying Leopards just four points ahead, 51-47, but Liaoning pulled away via a huge third quarter spurt that extended the lead to 14, 81-67, after 36 minutes of play.
The Southern Tigers, with several key players over the age of 30, could not keep up pace with head coach Joe Whelton's side in the fourth quarter to surrender the game to the Flying Leopards, 103-88.
Guangdong will now need to defeat Liaoning three straight times for them to qualify in the finals.
Liaoning was led by American point guard Lester Hudson with 31 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists in over 44 minutes of playing time, as per Asia-basket.
Led by forwards Li Xiaoxu and import Shavlik Randolph, who had 13 and 11 rebounds respectively, the hosts outrebounded the visitors by 12, 51-39, which proved to be the deciding factor in the match. Randolph fired 19 points as well to support Hudson.
Meanwhile, Guangdong was paced by former NBA standout Yi Jianlian who had 23 points and 10 boards. Yi was supported by Ike Diogu and Zhou Peng who had 21 points each.
