The Zhejiang Golden Bulls registered an overwhelming 123-82 victory over the Ningbo Rockets in a duel between two sides at either ends of the table, while the Zhejiang Lions rallied past the Fujian Sturgeons 111-107 in overtime for their seventh consecutive win in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league on Thursday.
Despite resting their star guard Wu Qian, Zhejiang, who had already secured top place of the regular season after the previous round, was too strong for bottom side Ningbo.
Six players hit double figures in Zhejiang's lop-sided victory, led by veteran center Zhang Dayu's 19 points.
Wang Yibo and Moses Wright steered Zhejiang to a 14-6 lead, and the league leaders soon extended their advantage to double digits midway through the first quarter.
Zhejiang continued to take a firm grip on the game and set up a 66-42 cushion at halftime, and their lead ballooned to 43 points after the third quarter, making the game far beyond reach for Ningbo, who only has only won three times in 40 games this campaign.
The game between the Lions and the Sturgeons was not like their rankings have shown so far.
Fujian, who sat fourth from bottom, raced to a 39-29 lead as the first quarter ran out and possessed an eight-point margin at the interval.
Trailing 80-81 after three quarters, the sixth-placed Lions relied on their main scorer Sun Minghui's 3-pointer with 17 seconds remaining to force overtime.
Kyle Wiltjer scored seven points in overtime to help the Lions extend their winning streak to seven games.
Hu Jinqiu contributed 30 points and 19 rebounds for the Lions, who also got 30 points from Wiltjer and 23 points from Sun.
Also on Thursday, the Liaoning Flying Leopards routed the Shanxi Loongs 127-99, the Shanghai Sharks outplayed the Tianjin Pioneers 125-106, and the Jiangsu Dragons beat the Sichuan Blue Whales 124-112.
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