Liaoning Flying Leopards continued its dominance of the league by beating the Guangdong Southern Tigers with a 116-114 overtime victory to take the early lead of the series 1-0 of the semifinal round of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) on Friday night.

American import Lester Hudson, a two-time CBA Most Valuable Player, fired 29 points to go along with 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals to lead the Flying Leopards to their fourth consecutive win in the postseason of the league. Former NBA player Shavlik Randolph added 23 points and 6 rebounds for the victors.

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Liaoning's Chinese star guard Guo Ailun finished the game with 20 points and 7 assists, while forward He Tianju had 15 points with 9 boards and 2 assists.

Forward Li Xiaoxu and Han Dejun delivered impressive game performances scoring 14 points and 11 points respectively with Xiaoxu posting 11 boards for a double-double game production during the game.

Liaoning, who was 80.8 percent from the foul line making 21 of the 26 free shots, was leading with 14 points at the end of the first half with the score at 62-48. The Southern Tigers managed to make an 28-22 run in the third period to close the gap within 8 points going into the fourth quarter of the match.

In the final period of the game, Guangdong was able to limit Liaoning to just 20 points while they dropped 28 points to force the match to be decided in overtime with 104 all.

During the extended five minutes of the game, Liaoning was able to get the better of Guangdong, who committed 23 turnovers in the entire game, with a 12-10 charge to wrap up the victory.

Nigerian-American Ike Diogu led the Southern Tigers with a game-high 31 points with 16 big rebounds, while Chinese basketball superstar Jianlian Yi added 28 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists.

Former Pinar Karsiyaka player Justin Carter contributed 21 points and 5 rebounds, while team captain Zhu Fangyu and forward Zhou Peng had 15 points and 12 points respectively.

Tagscba, Lester Hudson, Liaoning Flying Leopards