Shanxi have one game back to tie Beijing 1-1 at WCBA finals

A 22-11 third quarter earned defending champions Shanxi a 63-60 victory to tie the best-of-five series 1-1 in China's Women's Basketball Association (WCBA) finals on Saturday.

"We had good defense at the start, but we showed poor offense and rebounds and trailed in the first half," said Shanxi's head coach Lucas Mondelo.

"In the last five minutes, we did better than our opponents in offense and also defense. That is the key to our win," he added.

Maya Moore had a game-high 22 points and 10 rebounds for Shanxi. Her teammates Ma Xueya and Ji Yanyan added 13 and 11 respectively.

Brittney Griner's two free throws gave Beijing a 17-13 lead as the first quarter ran out. The visitors pulled ahead to eight points on Zhang Fan's second-chance shot midway through the second period with Beijing leading 34-26 into halftime.

Shanxi stepped up their defense and surged to a 11-0 run to see their first lead at 37-36 on Ji Yanyan's layup before Beijing's Yang Hengyu snapped his team's slide snatching six points in a row.

Shanxi held a three-point lead into the final quarter. Ji Yanyan's layup earned Shanxi a 63-56 lead with one minute to go before being responded by Beijing's Shao Ting's jumper and Griner's layup.

Beijing cut the deficit to three points with 38 seconds remaining, but Zhang Fan and Griner missed two consecutive shots beyond the arc and Beijing lost the chance to force the overtime.

"We finished what we expected before the game," said Xu Limin, Beijing's head coach.

Only one Beijing player scored in double figure. Griner had 21 points and 11 boards.

Game 3 will be played in Shanxi's home court on March 3. Endi