Xinjiang shocked to open CBA playoffs

Fourth-placed Xinjiang Guanghui, the champion of last year's regular season, was defeated by the fifth seed Dongguan Marco Polo 101-95 in the first playoff game of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league on Wednesday. Xinjiang ended their rocky regular season with a winning streak of seven games, grabbing the fourth place and the home court advantage by the last minute. However, the CBA superpower failed to open their playoff journey with a victory. Dongguan's scoring duo Ronald Randolph and Josh Akognon dominated the game. Randoph wrapped up 30 points and 14 rebounds. Akognon collected 24 points, and at the same time sent 9 assists. Dongguan's team working play style became the key factor in their victory, leading 22-11 in the stat of assists. Zhangkai and Gu Quan took 16 points and 12 points respectively for Dongguan, and the team became the only team winning on home court out of a total of four games on Wednesday. Host team Dongguan heated up quicker after the opening whistle, delivering a 12-5 spurt to take the advantage. Xinjiang managed to catch up to 16-11, but Dongguan's Sun Tonglin and Zhangkai made a couple of jump shots to extend the lead to 19-11 in the first quarter. Xinjiang recovered in the second half. All-Star center Bateer dominated the basket, leading Xinjiang to trim the gap to two points. However, Dongguan's Akognon and Gu Quan fired from the three point line afterwards, and helped Dongguan to end the second quarter with an 8-point advantage. The game got more physical in the second half, Dongguan tried to get a bigger advantage, but Xinjiang refused to give up the game in such an early time. Xinjiang shooters got hot-handed in the final quarter, trimming the gap to three points with 42.1 seconds left. Akognon, again, stood out. He made a difficult three pointer in the final time, and broke Xinjiang's dream of winning a game in Dongguan. Xinjiang's Bateer got 18 points and 11 rebounds. Tim Pickett and Ike Diogu contributed 19 points each. Shooter Xu Guochong made 11points. Beijing Ducks, led by former NBA All-Star Stephon Mabury, edged Zhejiang Guangsha 106-103. Beijing once established a 16-point lead in the third period, but Guangsha leveled the score with 27 seconds left. Beijing guard Lee Hsueh-Lin became the man of the game in the final seconds. the 27-year-old put in a three pointer before the final whistle to seal the victory for Beijing. Marbury got 32 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists for Beijing. Randolph Morris added 18 points. Guangsha's Peter Ramos bagged 26 points and 20 rebounds. In Wednesday's other two games, defending champion Guangdong Hongyuan rolled past Fujiang SBS 115-97, Shanxi Zhongyu beat Shanghai Sharks 90-85.