XI'AN, Sept. 23 (XInhua) -- Guangdong defeated Zhejiang 95-75 in the under-19 men's basketball final of the ongoing 14th Chinese National Games here on Thursday.
Sun Haoqin scored 43 points for Guangdong, in addition to six steals and five rebounds. Yu Jiahao of Zhejiang pocketed 18 points, plus 13 rebounds.
Zhejiang had a strong start before Guangdong responded with a 7-1 run midway in the first quarter.
Trailing by five points, Guangdong dashed into the second quarter with Sun contributing two three-pointers and scoring 24 points to help the title favorite lead by 18 points going into the second half.
Guangdong then enlarged its lead to 21 points after the third quarter and never looked back.
Zhejiang once narrowed the gap to 17 in the fourth quarter, but Guangdong ruined their rivals' hopes of turning the game around with Sun's fantastic layup with 2:20 remaining on the clock.
"We prepared well enough before the final game. We made some adjustments when facing tough situations in the first quarter, and we began to show our normal level since then," Guangdong head coach Zheng Yonggang told Xinhua.
Yao Ming, China's basketball legend and president of the Chinese Basketball Association, appeared in the tournament's victory ceremony.
"President Yao joked with me while giving the award. Though finishing runner-up in this major event, I will try my best to contribute to China's basketball in the future," Yu said at the post-game press conference. Enditem
