URUMQI, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Guo Ailun and Lester Hudson combined for 66 points while Liaoning won over Xinjiang 109-100 in the best-of-seven semifinals of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) on Sunday night.
Liaoning has never collected a road win over their tough rivals Xinjiang with an embarrassed record of 0-7 in CBA playoffs.
Xinjiang outscored Liaoning 5-0 to start the game before Guo Ailun scored 4 points in a row to put Liaoning on top 15-11. A big effort from Zeng Lingxu who came off the bench helped Xinjiang regain the pace of game to lead with 27-25.
Kay Felder's back-to-back 3-pointers put Xinjiang up by as many as 11 points. Guo Ailun hit five straight points to shave the gap. However, Jarnell Stokes from Xinjiang side added another 3-pointers to ensure they had a 55-46 advantage into the halftime break.
Xinjiang was within one when Brandon Bass connected on a jumper to cap a 10-0 spurt in the third period. Liaoning outscored 82-80 on two free throws before Abudushalamu beat the shot clock with a driving layup to tie it up.
The hard situation seemed to motivate Guo Ailun, who scored 10 points in the fourth to extend Liaoning's lead to 10 points for the first time. Thanks to a gritty defense, Liaoning won over Xinjiang with 109-100 and turned it to 2-1 overall.
Felder got 16 points, his teammate Abudushalamu also had a disappointing performance with only 11 points on 3-of-11 shootings.
