The Guangzhou Loong Lions swept past the Xinjiang Flying Tigers 105-83, while Zhejiang nosed out Shanghai 121-120 in the best-of-five quarterfinals of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league on Wednesday.
After losing to Xinjiang twice in a row, Guangzhou was pushed to the corner in Game 3.
Guangzhou began the game 12-6 in the first quarter, before Xinjiang caught up 14-13. The score gap remained within four points for some minutes. However, Guangzhou managed to widen it to 27-20 in the first quarter and continued the momentum in the second.
Guangzhou led 58-40 over Xinjiang by the end of the first half and eventually took Game 3 but still lagged behind 2-1 overall.
Barry Brown Jr. notched up a game-high 37 points, while Chen Yingjun and Cui Yongxi added 23 and 22 points respectively for Guangzhou. Qi Lin and Lindell Wigginton each scored 13 points for Xinjiang, and Abudushalamu Abudurexiti grabbed 11 rebounds.
Also on Wednesday, Zhejiang won a hard-fought Game 3 against Shanghai to lead the series 2-1. Eric Bledsoe contributed 28 points and seven assists to Shanghai, while Yu Jiahao collected 21 points for Zhejiang, and Lu Wenbo made six three-pointers.