MVP Hudson fires Liaoning to Guangsha victory

Lester Hudson defended his CBA MVP crown on Monday, and he did well enough to accept the award on the same day.

The Memphis native had 36 points and 10 assists to carry Liaoning over Guangsha 121-105 to get a 2-0 lead in the CBA playoffs first round series.

China Basketball Association (CBA) named Hudson as the 2014-2015 MVP on Monday, making the 28-year-old shooter the first foreign player to win two MVP trophies.

The former NBA player made 10 out of his 11 two-point attempts in Liaoning's victory, followed up by four three-pointers.

Liaoning is one win away from moving into CBA semifinals.

The second quarter turned out to be a decisive one, in which Liaoning outscored the opponent 37-17 on the home court.

"The second quarter was very difficult for us," said Guangsha head coach Li Chunjiang. "Liaoning is a team of stars, and we didn't play well in the second quarter, offensively and defensively."

Li had led CBA powerhouse Guangdong to win eight CBA champions in the past 10 years, but it seemed to be a mission impossible for him to do that again in Guangsha this season.

Five Liao Ning players had double digits, including Hudson. Deon Thompson got 27 points and seven rebounds for Liaoning while Han Dejun and Yangming had 17 and 15 points respectively.

The first quarter saw a 7-3 start of Liaoning, but Guangsha responded with a 12-0 run. Guangsha led the host team 28-25 to finish the period.

Liaoning had a perfect second quarter, Guangsha tried to get back into the game in the third quarter, but Liaoning never allowed the away team to cut the gap to less than nine points for the rest part of the game.

"We had great defense tonight," said Liaoning assistant coach Jie Jun. "Key players of Guangsha didn't perform at their highest level, so we took the chance."

Jie took charge instead of Guo Shiqiang, Liaoning's head coach who was suspended for two games by CBA for challenging the referee.

Eli Holman top-scored for Guangsha with 29 points while Zhao Dapeng and Su Ruoyu each took 15.

In Monday's other game, Qingdao beat Shanxi 118-101 to get a 2-0 series lead.

Qingdao led 25-17 after the first quarter but Shanxi closed it to 55-57 at halftime.

The host side was fired up in the third quarter and went into the fourth with a 91-77 lead.

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