Beijing loses 101-109 to Guangdong in CBA semis

Powell of Guangdong Hongyuan breaks through as Stephon Marbury, right, of Beijing Ducks defends during their CBA league semifinals in Beijing, March 11, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - Former NBA player Stephon Marbury finished with a game-high 34 points, seven rebounds and three assists while Beijing Ducks lost to Guangdong Hongyuan 101-109, making it a 2-2 tie in the semifinals of 2013-2014 Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league here in MasterCard Center.

With a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five semifinals, Beijing needed just one more victory to advance to the finals, and they have never tasted failure in MasterCard Center. However, their first home loss tonight let two teams tie again at 2-2.

Randolph Morris grabbed 21 of his 31 points of the game just in the second quarter to help Beijing cut the 11-point deficit at the beginning of this quarter to 46-48 at the end of the first half.

With a 8-0 streak, Guangdong regained a two-digit lead in the third quarter. And a 3-pointer from Wang Shipeng helped Guangdong extend the lead up to 18 points. Beijing then hit 6 free throws to trim the gap to 69-80.

In the last 12 minutes, Marbury and Zhu Yanxi hit a 3-pointer respectively before Marbury's layup made Beijing trailed by only 5 points at 77-82. Then Zhu Fangyu dominated the game. He scored 16 points in the final quarter, hit 7 of 8 free throws in the last minute to lead Guangdong to their first win in MasterCard Center.