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Beijing levels Xinjiang in WCBA finals with road victory

Xinhua, March 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Beijing held off the attacks from Xinjiang in the last period to win 75-66, tying the best-of-five finals at 1-1 in the Chinese Women's Basketball Association (WCBA) league here on Thursday.

Gao Song finished with a team-high 20 points for Beijing. Sylvia Fowles and Shao Ting added 19 and 13 respectively.

"It's not an easy win. We lost the last game at home. Thus, we had a better preparation today mentally," said Xu Limin, Beijing's head coach.

Gao opened the scoring account for Beijing with a three-pointer, leading the visitors to a 13-2 spurt, capped by Zhang Fan's shot beyond the arc. Hua Lin had nine points for Xinjiang, who trailed 17-26 as the first quarter ran out.

Xinjiang's head coach Zhan Shuping called timeout after seeing a 14-point deficit early in the second period, before Gao getting hot with nine points in a row.

Fowles overshadowed her American compatriot Tina Charles in both offense and defense with two consecutive plays in the paint. Focusing too much on defense, Charles nailed only two points in the first half.

The visitors carried a 14-point advantage in hand into the locker room.

Beijing's promising star Shao got her fourth personal foul two minutes into the third quarter, forcing her back to the bench, but her teammate Sun Xiaoyu had a 3 to give Beijing an 18-point lead, their largest margin throughout the game.

Charles came back with two consecutive second-chance plays, yet Beijing still led by 64-46 into the last quarter.

A mutual foul was called against both Shao and Xinjiang's Peng Shiqing when they grabbed for a loose ball, Shao was thus fouled out with 7:50 to go, letting her team suffer too much in the offensive end.

Peng had 16 points in last 12 minutes, including three 3-pointers. The hosts once cut the dificit to six, but Beijing sealed the win with solid performance on free-throw line.

"They had a tough defense from the start, and our players didn't get used to. That's why we lose tonight," said coach Zhan.

Peng had a game-high 27 points. Hua was the only other player to score a double-digit point of 15 for Xinjiang.

Game 3 will be held on Saturday in Xinjiang. Endit