Bayi wins CBA title

Players of Bayi Fubang celebrate their eighth title of the Chinese Basketball Association league.
[Photo: sports.sina.com.cn]

Wang Zhizhi scored 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter to lead Bayi Fubang to an 88-83 victory over defending champion Guangdong Hongyuan and the title of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league in Dongguan on Wednesday.

This was the eighth league title for the military team, who won the first seven title during 1995-2001 before Wang joined the Dallas Mavericks in 2002.

Wang, who came back to Bayi last summer, also grabbed seven rebounds to deny 22 points and 10 rebounds from Yi Jianlian, who was seeking for the fourth consecutive championships for Guangdong.

Six Guangdong players scored in double digital numbers but they trailed in most of the game, the first time in the five final games.

Li Nan, who scored 14 points, buried his second 3-pointer to give Bayi a 85-76 lead with 2:22 minutes to go. The 33-year-old captain raised his hand towards the sky for a victory gesture.

"We wanted to beat them up here, in Dongguan.

We didn't want to go back to Ningbo (Bayi's home court) because it's the best time to wrap up the finals on a 3-1 lead," Li said.

After coming back from a timeout, Zhu Fangyu and Yi Jianlian made a 3-pointer each and Yi's free-throw cut it to 85-83 with 40 seconds to go.

Point guard Wang Zhongguang missed a 3-pointer attempt but Guangdong missed a chance to tie it or even take the lead when Terrance committed a turnover with 18.3 seconds left.

The home team took a brief lead at the beginning of the game before Bayi used a 17-4 run to make it 17-8 in the first quarter.

Guangdong usurped the lead twice in the following game, but let it loose soon with Bayi leading by as many as 10 points