Brooks drags defending champions from cliff edge

Former NBA star Aaron Brooks buried 6-of-8 three pointers with 30 points to help defending champions Guangdong Hongyuan overwhelm Beijing Ducks 111-93 here on Sunday to pull one game back on 1-2 in the best-of-seven CBA final series.

Beijing Ducks' playmaker Stephon Marbury, also a former NBA guard, scored the game-high 39 points, but failed to curb the hosts' collective upsurge.

Super shooter Zhu Fangyu, the Guangdong captain, grabbed 26 points, while big forward James Singleton added a big double-double 21 points and 19 rebounds. Li Yuanyu, 21 and a new face which never appeared in the last two final games, impressed Guangdong spectators with 12 points and 8 rebounds.

"As a rookie, Li's performance was perfect. I'm happy at that. We did a pretty good job at rebounds (56-33), while 17 turnovers were still too much," Guangdong coach Li Chunjiang said.

With too many early fouls, Beijing had only Marbury and Morris scoring double-digit points.

"Two of three insiders were fouled out in the last quarter and the other suffered 5, which was too tough for us," said Beijing coach Min Lulei.

Randolph Morris scored 13 points in the second quarter as Beijing surged a 13-5 run to cut the 8-point deficit in the first, closing it on 46-49 at the break.

Guangdong got a 15-4 run with hot hand from downtown to stretch the lead to a maximum 17 points on 72-55 before Marbury scored 6 as Beijing trim it on 68-72 with a 13-0 surge.

In the fourth period as Beijing's paint powers Ji Zhe and Zhu Yanxi were fouled out and Morris was trapped with five, Brooks and Singleton buired couples of 3-pointers to pull the Guangdong advantage over double-digits.