Teenager sensation Yi Jianlian had 26 points and 15 rebounds to give defending champion Guangdong Southern Tigers a 104-98 victory over the Bayi Rockets in the opener of the 2006-07 Chinese Basketball Association league (CBA) on Saturday.

Former CBA MVP Wang Zhizhi had a complete game of 20 points, 11 rebounds, five assists and three blocks on his first match for the Rockets in five years, failing to pull down a win for the runner-up of last season.

Wang, who was selected by the Dallas Mavericks on the second round in 1999, went to the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 2001 and played for the Mavericks, the Los Angeles Clippers and the Miami Heat in five-season spell.

Prior to his leave to the NBA, Wang led the Rockets to beat the Shanghai Sharks, led by the Houston Rockets' center Yao Ming, in a best-of-three finals for the title in the 2000-01 season.

Trailing 81-72 to enter the fourth quarter, the Southern Tigers had a 14-2 run to usurp the lead on 86-83 in 3:09 minutes.

Mo Ke, who had 24 points and five rebounds, leveled it up on 98-98 with over one minutes to go before Wang Shipeng buried a three-pointer to put the home team ahead for good.

Wang, who made the game-winning 3-pointer in China's victory over Slovenia at the World Championships last month in Japan, had 23 points.

The new season was chopped off more than 100 matches in the regular season so that the national team will have longer training camp for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

The other matches of the first round will be played on Sunday.

Members of the national team will be called up for the Asian Games in December when the CBA league has to be suspended until January.

(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2006)