CBA-Euroleague Challenge report: Team China 78-75 Benetton Basket Tamoil
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The hosts from Team China made the CBA-Euroleague Challenge crowd in Kunshan, China as happy as could be on Sunday by downing Benetton Basket Tamoil 78-75 in a down-to-the-wire thriller that either team could have won. Point guard Liu Wei broke a tie by downing a gutsy jumper while stepping on the three-point line with 4 seconds left to secure the Team China victory. The hero of those fans, Yao Ming, truly led Team China to victory by scoring 33 points and pulling 10 rebounds in 33 minutes on the floor. Yao was money in the bank as he hit 11 of 15 two-point shots and 10 of 13 free throws. Yi Jianlin followed with 13 points for the winners, while Wang Lei added 12. Team China won despite making only 2 of 14 three-pointers in the game, as opposed to 11 of 27 for Benetton. The author of 4 three-pointers, Demarr Johnson, paced Benetton with 19 points, while Lionel Chalmers hit 3 others and finished with 17 points. The third member of Benetton's scoring trio was Mario Austin, with 16 points, to which he added 9 rebounds.
Almost three minutes passed without scoring before Yao gave the crowd a thrill by dropping in a hook shot to start the scoring, and when Yi followed with his own shot inside, Team China was up 4-0. Angelo Gigli finally got Benetton going with a triple, and Matteo Soragna copied him from the arc, allowing Benetton to tie 6-6. China's offense started clicking with Yao scoring the next 5 points and then Yi stealing, dunking and downing the extra free throw for a 14-8 Team China advantage. Benetton kept scoring from the arc, however, where Johnson's first triple made it 16-13, but Yao downed another hook as Team China held onto a 21-16 edge after one quarter.
The Yao and Yi show continued on the offensive end, as they boosted Team China's lead to 27-22, but now Benetton's offense ws diversifying. Austin downed his first two buckets, Engin Atsur added another and Chalmers pumped a pair of three-pointers to cut the difference on the scoreboard to 31-30. Benetton had hit 5 triples by the time the first of them fell for Team China off the hand of Wang Lei. As the end of the half neared, the Team China offense found others sources for points. A nice turnaround jumper in the lane by Liu Xiaoyu came with a free throw, which he made to keep Team China in front by 39-34. Then the crowd got another treat to finish the quarter as Zhu Fangyu's three-pointer rolled around the rim twice before falling and giving the hosts a 42-34 halftime advantage.
 Benetton came out after the break and served notice of its intentions by reeling off a 0-8 that Chalmers started with a driving layup and Pops Mensah Bonsu finished with a fastbreak basket that forged a 42-42 tie. Team China reacted by going to its big man again, and Yao obliged with a dunk on offense and a blocked shot on defense. But it was Wang Shipeng, with a pair of drives, the second of which had a free throw included, who boosted Team China back in front by 49-44. Chalmers, Austin and Johnson, with another three-pointer, kept Benetton on the heels of their hosts, but Yao with a hook and tip-in, helped by Wang Lei's three-point play, made sure that Team China still was in front by 59-55 after three quarters.
Benetton was far from finished. Johnson drilled from dowtown to open the final quarter, then Atsur and Chalmers copied him to vault Benetton into the lead for the first time in the second half. Benetton was still holding sizable 67-71 lead with 3 minutes remaining, when Yao reappeared with a dunk. Johnson answered with his fourth shot from downtown, putting Benetton up by 69-74 with 2:28 left to play. Yi started the Team China stretch run with a short basket, Wang Lei added free throws and Yao went to his hook shot again after getting good position to tie 75-75. After a Benetton miss, Team China saw its chance. Liu Wei took advantage of a collapsed Benetton defense to step forward and drain the go-ahead jumper with 4 seconds left on the clock. Benetton called timeout, but turned over its inbounds pass and then fouled Yao, who made the first try and missed the second as the clock ran out.
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Sunday, September 30, 2007
Euroleague.net
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