Guangdong Hongyuan beat Liaoning Hunters on long-rang shots in a 114-105 victory Friday to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven final of the Chinese Basketball Association league (CBA) in Dongguan, South China.

 

Guard Wang Shipeng buried 6-out-of-11 from behind the arc for the game-high 26 points to help the home team shoot 51.7% (15-29) on 3-pointers.

 

Twin stars Zhu Fangyu and Du Feng each got three shots from downtown to collect 25 and 19 points respectively.

 

Zhang Qingpeng, who had 24 points, eight rebounds, five steals and four rebounds, led Hunters back from a 111-92 loss in Game 1.

 

Olumide Oyedeji, however, squandered the best chance to close the gap as he missed both free-throws on a technical foul of Zhu with 42 seconds left, and Liaoning missed the following shot attempt.

 

"We played one of our best games, and we had chance to pull it down the stretch," said Liaoning's coach Guo Shiqiang. "But two centers shot 37% (Oyedeji) and 42% (Lamar Simpson) on the line. We can do nothing if we cannot shoot the free-throws."

 

Simpson had 21 points and 15 rebounds, 3-out-of-7 on free-throws, while Oyedeji had 17 points and seven rebounds, 3-out-of-8 on free-throws.

 

Guangdong had the early lead as usual before Bian Qiang's 3-pointer made it 24-23 for Liaoning in the first quarter.

 

Coming back from a 54-53 lead from the break, Zhu scored nine points in a 12-3 run to put Guangdong in the driving seat.

 

Liaoning used all the rest of the match to close it on 111-105 before Oyedeji had two free-throws and a throw-in in the last minute.

 

Game 3 and 4 will be played in Bayuquan, Liaoning Province on Sunday and Wednesday.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2008)