HK's Winling Advances Into Asian Champions Cup FinalsTwo American players contributed 70 points Saturday to help Hong Kong's Winling to advance into the 12th Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Champions Cup's finals.Henrie Darren and Jaxon Khari each scored 38 and 32 points, which account for 75 percent of the total scores, exciting local fans by beating Chinese mainland's Liaoning Hunters 94-79 (half time 58-47). "Our veteran internationals Li Xiaoyong and Guo Shilong, plus two foreign players did not came with us due to time table conflict," said Wu Qinglong, head coach of Liaoling team. Winling will go to Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, for the finals of the 12th ABC Champions Cup, which is slated for June 2-9. According to ABC's drawing, Winling will be joined by teams from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Iran, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates in group B, while six other teams will face each other in group A. They are the teams from Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar, Indonesia, Kyrghystan and another team from West Asia. Henrie Darren and Jaxon Khari made a "parachute landing" ten days ago to reinforce weak Winling. Henrie Darren, the 2-meter tall forward, holds a CBA (Continental Basketball Association in the United States) 3-pointer record of 9-for-14 in a CBA championship series in 1993. The 32-year-old was also a last minute cut of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks in two straight years. The 2.11-meter center Jaxon Khari was invited to the NBA's Golden State Warriors Veterans Camp in 1996. Hong Kong basketball clubs have taken part in the ABC Champions Cup six times and the Regal club won the title in 1998, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Liaoning Hunters, winner of the ABC Champions Cup in 1990, and the three times runner-ups, finished fifth in the 2000-01 season of China's Basketball Association league in March. |
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