WEINAN, China, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Shaanxi wolves started its Chinese National Basketball League (NBL) champion defending campaign here on Saturday, beating Chongqing 119-87.
The home team's players received their champion rings before their first game of the season, throwing the fans into frenzy in a victory ceremony.
Then Shaanxi led a 10-3 spurt at the beginning of the match.
Chongqing built a solid defense system but it couldn't stop Shaanxi players from pocketing points with three-pointers. In the first quarter, Chongqing trailed by seven points.
Shaanxi initiated a 11-2 spurt to start the second quarter, and had a comfortable lead of 56-43 before the half break, with an efficient 54 percent scoring rate.
Ater Majok continued his superb form in the third quarter, helping Shaanxi build up a huge lead. The season title favorites enlarged its advantages to 20 plus points in the first four minutes of the second half. Chongqing's coach Li Yiding tried many ways in order to narrow the gap, but he failed.
Majok scored 18 points with 12 minutes on the clock, killing off the suspense of the game. At last, Shaanxi smashed Chongqing 119-87. Majok contributed 21 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks totally to the home team.
"I noticed that there are seven Chinese players who got 10 more points today. Veteran Yu Xiaohang played a leading role in our team," said Park Myungsoo, head coach of Shaanxi.
"The new players of our team such as Zhang Yu did good jobs today," He added.
