Guangxi reaches the Chinese NBL final

Game 2 of the Chinese NBL semi-finals saw the Guangxi Rhinos progress to the finals with a road victory over Chongqing Fly Dragon. The narrow 87-88 win meant that the Rhinos swept the best of three semi-finals series to book a place in finals run. In the other Game 2 contest Jiangsu Tongxi defeated the Shaanxi Wolves 94-93 at home to tie the series at 1-1 and set up a decider on Friday.

Chongqing Fly Dragon vs. Guangxi Rhinos, 87-88 OT
The hosts had the opportunity to tie the series and they got off to a great start by outpacing Guangxi in the first period, winning the frame 20-14 to take early command of the game. The Rhinos chipped into the advantage during an improved second stanza and won the period 22-25 to leave the scoreboard reading 42-39 at halftime. Chongqing pulled ahead again in the third quarter to hold a 60-55 lead with 10 minutes left of regulation. In the fourth quarter the visitors responded by streaming in 22 points while holding the Fly Dragons to 17, which was enough to tie the game. The contest went into overtime and the extra frame proved particularly tight, but the Guangxi Rhinos stole the part 10-11 to reach the final.

The visitors were helped to victory by plenty of free throw opportunities thanks to 31 personal fouls from Chongqing. The winners shot 80.5% from the charity strip, nailing 33 of 41 attempts. Jie Sun was incredible for the winning effort as he score 37 points and took 6 boards, while Lei Ji added 15 points and 5 rebounds.

Ryan Rossiter picked up a double-double for Fly Dragon with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Liang took 19 points and LaPeng shot 18 points while collecting 7 rebounds.

Jiangsu Tongxi vs. Shaanxi Wolves, 94-93
Jiangsu took the other semi-final series to a deciding third game by narrowly defeating the Shaanxi Wolves at home. It was not looking likely after the first frame though as the Wolves carved into the home team during an exhilarating 10 minutes. By the end of the period Shaanxi held a comfortable 19-31 lead. The hosts turned it around at both ends in the second quarter as Tongxi nailed 24 points and stopped the visitors at 16; the score at halftime was set at 45-47. Jiangsu continued to cut into the deficit during the third stanza as they continued to score heavily, and by the end of the third the score stood at 73-73 after 30 minutes. A tense final quarter saw both sets of players push for the win, but Jiangsu scraped through by just a single point to take the win.

Xin Feng led the Jiangsu with 24 points and 6 rebounds, while LiBin Xie had 22 points and 7 boards.

Chenglong Duan paced the visitors with 19 points and DaPeng Liu secured 18 points.