Sichuan Blue Whales strengthened its hold to the lead of its series against the Xinjiang Flying Tigers with a 96-93 overtime victory to take a 2-0 advantage of the semifinal round of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) league on Sunday.

Iranian veteran center Hamed Haddadi paced Sichuan with a spectacular double-double game performance of 38 points, to beat all scorers, and 21 rebounds with 5 steals and 4 assists.

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American reinforcements 2010 NBA D-League MVP Mike Harris and former University of Washington Huskies Justin Dentmon helped the Blue Whales with 28 points and 18 points respectively, with Harris registering 15 boards to finished the game with a double-double game production.

Chinese center Jia Cheng contributed 9 points and 3 rebounds and forward Zhang Chunjun added 3 points and 6 boards for Sichuan, who have won five successive games since the start of the playoff season.

Sichuan ended the first half with an eight-point lead 52-44 as both clubs went in to their respective locker rooms. In the third quarter of the match, the Flying Tigers slowly made a run, cutting the deficit to just six 71-65 going into the final period of the game.

In the final twelve minutes of the match, the Flying Tigers were able to continue to limit the point production of Sichuan to just 15 points while they managed to produce 21 points to send the game into overtime with 86 all.

During the game extension, the Blue Whales were able to get the better of the Tigers as they scored 10 points and contained Xinjiang to just seven points to wrap up their second win of the series.

Sichuan dominated the shaded area, scoring 62 points inside the paint, while Xinjiang was limited to just 42 points during the game. Blue Whales also won the battle for the boards as they grabbed a team-combined 57 rebounds compared to the 39 board the Tigers got.

Xinjiang reinforcement Bryce cotton fired a team-high 23 points, while Andray Blatche was held to just 13 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists.

Tagscba, Sichuan Blue Whales, Hamed Haddadi