The Shanxi Loongs beat the Guangdong Southern Tigers 124-106 in Game 3 of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) playoff quarterfinals on the road in Dongguan, south China's Guangdong Province, on Saturday, winning the series 3-0.Shanxi will face the winners between the Beijing Ducks and the Beikong Royal Fighters in the semifinals.Hamidou Diallo made nine of his 16 field goals to score a team-high 25 points and 12 rebounds for Shanxi in less than 25 minutes.
Trey Kell III contributed 18 points off the bench, and the visitors had another five players reaching double-digit points.On Guangdong's side, Trey Burk was the only starter to surpass 10 points but it took him 19 field goal attempts to get 15 points in addition to eight assists.
The other four of the starting lineup combined to get 21 points, fewer than Troy Gillenwater's game-high 36 points off the bench.Guangdong began the game with a 5-0 lead, but it didn't last long.
Jia Mingru, Zhang Ning and Diallo knocked four triples, enabling Shanxi to gain the advantage 20-10 six minutes into the first quarter.
Gillenwater, Xu Jie and Xu Xin joined hands to try to rally for the hosts, cutting their deficit to three points at 31-28 when the quarter ended.Guangdong's shooters heated up in the second quarter.
Gillenwater drained two three-pointers.
Du Runwang and Hu Mingxuan made shots from downtown as well.
Their efforts enabled the home side to outscore the opponents 40-35 in this quarter and gain the advantage 68-66 in the first half.Shanxi enhanced their defense from the beginning of the third quarter while Kell III and Ge Zhaobao kept making three-pointers on the offensive end.
A 25-13 run by Shanxi was followed by five straight missed field goals by Guangdong, putting the visitors on a 97-81 lead.
Though Darius Bazley finally ended the hosts' field goal drought in the end, they still trailed 103-87 when the quarter ended.Shanxi's Xing Zhiqiang made both of his three-pointers of the night in the fourth quarter, extending their advantage to 20 points at 118-98.
Guangdong failed to do much to rally as the game went on.
In the end, the 11-time CBA champions were swept in the playoffs for the first time in three years.
Stopping in the quarterfinals also tied for their worst postseason record in franchise history.Ducks edge Royal Fighters for 2-1 lead in seriesIn the other game on the night, the Beijing Ducks defeated the Beikong Royal Fighters 105-102 in Game 3 of the capital clash to lead 2-1 in the series.Without their injured home star duo Zhou Qi and Zeng Fanbo, the Ducks saw none of their players reach 20 points, but six of them contributed double-digit points.
Richard Solomon got a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds in addition to three steals.
The whole team made 16 of their 32 three pointers.The Royal Fighters also had six players score in double digits.
Shen Zijie contributed a game-high 31 points plus three steals and four blocks.
Grant Riller had 20 points off the bench, but he missed the game-tying shot behind the arc in the final seconds.Shen displayed dominance from the beginning as he made all 11 of his field goal attempts in the first three quarters to get 24 points.
However, Beijing shot better from downtown and outscored the opponents in each quarter before leading 82-73 in three quarters.Chen Ying-Chun added another two three-pointers for the Ducks as the fourth quarter began, but then he was fouled out.
The Royal Fighters exploited his absence to launch a fierce rally, but Eugene German and Fan Ziming kept making key jumpers for their side to stay ahead.
Shen's dunk cut his side's deficit to three points at 105-102 with 43 seconds left.
Beikong managed to force a 24-second violation by the opponents in the following possession, but Riller missed the day-saving three-pointer.
His team will fight to keep the series on in Game 4 on Thursday.