Defending champions Guangdong Dongguan Bank kicked off the journey for the fifth title in six seasons with an easy 107-92 victory over Fujian SBS in the first round of the Chinese Men's Basketball Association league (CBA) on Sunday.
Guard Zhu Fangyu came off from brilliant performances of the Beijing Olympic Games, having 24 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals in 30 minutes playing-time for the host team.
Chris Porter had the game-high 31 points and 13 rebounds in 42:50 minutes while Matt Frejie added 24 points in 44:50 minutes for Fujian.
Guangdong won the championships during the span of 2002-05 seasons but lost it to the Bayi Rockets in the 2006-07 season.
The Liaoning Hunters, last season's runners-up, made a stuttering start to the new season, losing to the Shanxi Zhongyu 94-74 at home.
Failing to renew the contract with Nigerian Olumide Oyedeji and American Jamal Sampson, who had fueled the team's drive last season, Liaoning had to force their pace and played catch-up most of the time.
The host team had leveled the match at 47-all in the third quarter, but the players could not keep the consistency in the remaining time.
Shanxi's players made nine three-pointers, five more than that of Liaoning.
Oyedeji, playing for Shanxi in the new season, reeled off 23 points, 24 rebounds and nine assists. Zhai Jinshuai added 23.
Li Xiaoxu led the host team with 26 points. Yang Ming and Liu Xiangtao had 13 and 12 apiece.
American Priest had 33 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Shandong Gold past the newly-promoted Tianjin Ronggang 94-74 at home.
Sun Jie notched up 20 points, 5 assists and 5 steals for Shandong while another American Mackeroy Tuck added 17.
The Shaanxi Yalv also had a solid start at home, shooting 11 three-pointers to prevail over visitors Changchun Dacheng with a 110-87 drubbing.
Six players of Shaanxi had double digits, with Lee Benson scoring a game-high 23 points. Chen Zhaosheng added 22.
Elsewhere, the Beijing ducks lost to the Xinjiang Guanghui 101-97 overtime, the Zhejiang Guangsha beat the Shanghai Sharks 113-107, the Zhejiang Cyclones beat the Qingdao Double Stars 100-92and the Yunnan Honghe lost to the Bayi Rockets 118-97.
This is the first season that the league lift off the playing-time limit to the foreign players, who were given five-quarter playing time in total in one match.
In a match played on Saturday, the Dongguan Marco Polo beat the Jiangsu Dragons 107-101 overtime.
(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2008)