The Beijing Ducks began the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) postseason semifinals against the Shanxi Loongs with a 1-0 lead in the series and a 102-94 victory in Game 1 in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province, on Sunday.Chen Ying-Chun and Eugene German co-led the game with 23 points for Beijing.
The two also combined to deliver 18 assists, 10 of which came from Chen.
The visitors' star center Zhou Qi came back off the bench from injury for the crucial game, contributing a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds plus two blocks.
Zeng Fanbo got 13 points and delivered four blocks.On Shanxi's side, only three players were able to contribute double-digit points compared with Beijing who had five and all of them were foreign players: Brandon Goodwin, Hamidou Diallo and Trey Kell.
The three also combined to make five of the team's nine three-pointers after shooting 5-for-12 from downtown.Beijing began the game with a 7-2 lead, but the first quarter remained close.
Zhou displayed dominance on both ends of the game in the paint, but Goodwin and Xing Zhiqiang both made three-pointers to put Shanxi on top 24-20.
Chen added a three-pointer at the end of the quarter for Beijing to stay behind 27-23.The visitors exploited Shanxi's struggling offense at the beginning of the second quarter to drive a 19-2 run.
Goodwin and Kell ended the drought for the hosts and continued to score, cutting their deficit to five points at 56-51.The third quarter started with a field goal drought of the Ducks and the Loongs exploited it for a 20-5 run, gaining a 71-61 advantage.
German and Zeng both made shots behind the arc for Beijing to narrow the gap down to four points at 78-74 as the quarter ended.Shanxi could not separate themselves in the fourth quarter and Beijing found themselves on top 95-93 after Chen made another three-pointer with less than four minutes to go.
Shanxi missed all of their five field goals in this quarter and scored only one point via a free throw by Goodwin.
They lost the game and the home court advantage in the series.
Game 2 will take place on Tuesday.