Guangdong Southern Tigers managed to stay alive and extend their series clash against the league's top team Liaoning Flying Leopards with a close 97-96 victory in the semifinals of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) on Wednesday.

The league's domestic Most Valuable Player of the Year Jianlian Yi showed everyone why he is worthy of the award, leading the Southern Tigers with a remarkable double-double game performance of 26 points and 10 rebounds to cut the series deficit to 2-1. The award was the Chinese basketball superstar's fourth in a row in the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in Asia.

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Guangdong foreign reinforcements Nigerian-American Ike Diogu added 21 points and 4 boards, while American Justin Carter contributed 16 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

Chinese Zhou Peng finished the game with 17 points, while Ren Junfei and Dong Hanlin chipped in 5 points each for the winners.

The Southern Tigers had a nine-point lead at the halftime break. Guangdong managed to control the game and stretched the gap to double digits with an 11-point margin 77-66 closing the third quarter of the match.

In the final twelve minutes of the game, the Flying Leopards were able to make a 30-20 run but failed short of winning the game and sweeping the series.

The defeat was the first for Liaoning since staging consecutive victories from the regular season. It snapped their five-game winning streak in the playoff season.

CBA foreign MVP runner-up Lester Hudson scored a game-high 34 points, along with 5 rebounds while former Boston Celtics player Shavlik Randolph had 20 points and 5 boards for Liaoning.

Guo Ailun, who came second-best after Jianlian Yi for the local MVP award, finished the game with 17 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists, while forward Li Xiaoxu had a double-double game production of 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Flying Leopards.

Tagscba, guangdong southern tigers, Jianlian Yi