After staging the biggest upset of the season by ousting the league's top-seeded Shaanxi Xinda Wolves, the blazing Guizhou Senhang survived another thrilling challenge from Hebei Xianglan in the opening game of their best-of-five semifinal series on Sunday in the ongoing Chinese National Basketball League playoffs.

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According to Asia-Basket, Guizhou got the better of Hebei with a 138-133 overtime win to take the early 1-0 lead of the series. The victory is Guizhou's third-straight win after prevailing over the Wolves with back-to-back triumphs in the quarterfinal round.

Former Los Angeles D-Fenders player Brandon Costner poured in a spectacular double-double performance of 52 big points and 25 huge rebounds to lead Guizhou to its first victory of the series. The North Carolina State product hit six three-pointers and also registered six assists, two steals and one blocked shot while playing for 53 minutes.

Steven Burtt also had an impressive game with 42 markers and nine boards while Chinese player Bo Zhang contributed 13 points for the winners. Xu Liu and Minghao Li added 12 and nine points repectively for Guizhou, who outplayed Hebei with a 15-8 advantage in assists.

According to NowGoal, the match was comparatively close as the first half ended with 62-all. Hebei won the opening period with a 33-30 run while Guizhou claimed the following quarter with a 32-29 charge.

In the second half of the game, Guizhou started to slowly pull away carrying a seven-point lead at the end of the third quarter 95-88. However, Hebei staged a 30-23 fourth quarter outburst forcing to send the game into overtime 118-118.

Guizhou managed to produce 20 more points while containing Hebei to just 15 points and secure the victory in the overtime period.

American Shannon Shorter paced Hebei with a team-high 50 points while Tony Mitchell had 49.

Tagsbrandon costner, NBA D-League, Los angeles D-fenders, steven burtt, chinese nbl