Courtney Fortson scored 13 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, Hu Jinqiu added 28 points, helping Guangsha beat Shandong 98-90 to gain a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven semifinals of 2017-2018 Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) playoffs Monday night.

Shandong came to home court after a 1-1 draw in Zhejiang. However, Shandong failed to capitalize the home advantage. After a very brief lead in the beginning, Shandong trailed all the time, and the biggest margin was 21 points.

Shandong made only 47.2 percent of its field shots, but suffered from 17 turnovers. Guangsha had more points in the first half, but Shandong scored more in second half.

"We missed a lot of shots and free throws. Our opponents are the champions in regular season, and they played better than us in the first half," said Shandong coach Aleksandar Kesar. "Of course we would like to win, but we are against the best team, we should play each game better than them to win. We should score more free throws."

It was a doubt why Kesar did not call the timeout in second quarter when trailing 18 points.

"I have been coach for 20 years. Do you think I do not know? Am I so stupid? I don't understand this question," said Kesar, adding that nobody is superior to him in the team.

Ding Yanyuhang of Shandong scored a game-high 36 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists.

"We won the game because of players effort and tight defense. Hope we can keep the winning streak," said Guangsha coach Li Chunjiang. "We had only 8 turnovers, half of that of Shandong. It is also to our advantage."

Guangsha claimed a 25-12 advantage in assists, and Fortson had 11.

"Fortson has a good attitude. He was dynamic for the whole game, helping us to score more. That is a credit to him," Guangsha coach Li Chunjiang priased Fortson's contribution.

Shandong will have two more home matches this week.

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