Stephon Marbury scored season-high 48 points and dished out 7 assists as defending champions Beijing Ducks beat Dongguan Marco Polo 118-105 in Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league on Friday. [CRI] |
Marbury, who played pivotal role in Beijing's winning of their first ever CBA title last season, was in top form throughout the game, having double-digit scoring in every quarter.
Marbury's performance inspired his inside partner Randolph Morris, who finished with 29 points and 7 rebounds.
Marcus Haislip, the leading scorer of Dongguan, had 23 points but shot only 29 percent (5-of-17) from the floor, which spoiled Dongguan's bid to repeat their victory last December when they beat Beijing by 29 points, the largest deficit of this season for the defending champions.
"We watched the videotapes of Haislip's games before the match and worked out a personal defence strategy for him. Obviously, that worked tonight," Beijing's coach Min Lulei said.
Despite Tracy Mcgrady's triple-double with 22 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists, Qingdao Doublestars lost to Zhejiang Guangsha 122-129. Gary Forbes scored a game-high 42 points for Guangsha.
League leader Guangdong Hongyuan downed Liaoning Hengye 112-90 for a 15-game winning streak. Yi Jianlian had a double-double performance of 11 points and 10 rebounds but only scored 2 points in the first half.
Shandong Gold created the largest margin of victory this season by crushing Jiangsu Dragons 130-80. Six players of Shandong scored double-digit points.
In other games, Fujian SBS beat Jilin Northeast Tigers 120-113, Zhejiang Chouzhou beat Tianjin Ronggang 118-90, Xinjiang Guanghui beat Shanxi Zhongyu 129-110, Foshan Long Lions beat Shanghai Sharks 118-112 in overtime.