CHN - It’s Miao’s Shenyang v Cash’s Guangdong for WCBA title

BEIJING (WCBA) - This year’s WCBA champions will be a new team after all! The semi-finals of the 10th edition of the WCBA Championship saw the two teams who had combined to win all the championships to date get knocked out.

Shenyang Golden Lions routed two-time defending and four-time overall champions Liaoning Hengye 95-77 while Guandong Dolphins showed the door to five-time former champions Bayi Kylin 71-66 in Games 2 of their best-of-three semi-final series on Friday to seal their places for the Championship series.

Shenyang had won 92-82 and Guangdong 58-50 in Games 1 of their series respectively on Tuesday.

Incidentally, both teams took control of Game 2 of their semi-finals only in the third quarter, both having to stave off first-half deficits.

Shenyang led 25-23 at the end of the first quarter, but were faced with a 27-21 deficit in the second to trail 50-46 at the end of the first half.

Forceful third quarter
A fantastic and forceful 29-12 run in the third quarter put Shenyang in control of their game against Liaoning and the regular season champions used that spurt to go on to victory.

As usual, Lijie Miao (right in combo picture), led Shenyang’s scoring with a game-high 37 points. The 30-year-old also handed out nine assists and collected eight rebounds. Song Liwei continued her capable support with a 21-point game and Liu Dan had an impressive all-round game of 17 points, five rebounds, four steals and three assists.

Kara Braxton had 31 points and 14 rebounds for Liaoning, but again it was in vain.

Shenyang last made it to the WCBA Finals in 2005-06 when they lost to Liaoning.

Guangdong ‘Cash’ in
In Game 2 of their semi-final series against Bayi, Guangdong trailed 23-15 at the end of the opening period and 38-31 at the end of the first half.

But, like Shenyang, they used a strong third quarter, in which they outscored their opponents 24-13 and that proved to be the difference as the teams were equal in the final frame.

Team USA and Seattle Storm forward Swin Cash (left in combo picture) had 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead Guangdong, who are reaching the finals for the first time in seven years. Ding Yuan chipped in with 16 points and Qiu Siyue finished with 13 points.

Chen Lisha led Bayi with 18 points, while Nan Chen had 11 rebounds to go with her 17 points.

FIBA Asia