CHN W: Champions Tianjin losing playoff battle with another defeat, Rourke moves Sichuan from bottom (VIDEO)

Tianjin

Tianjin suffered their third defeat in Top 8 in six games and fell to fifth place in the standings, out of playoff zone. The fact they lost only one game in ten rounds of Regular Season perfectly shows how much Tianjin’s play has deteriorated since then. Unlike other defeats, this one did not come as a huge surprise since it was suffered by the best-ranked team in Regular Season Zhejiang, who is also struggling in Top 8. Li Jing with 21 points and Zhu Yuezhou created Zhejiang’s straight-set win over Tianjin where Cuban Nancy Carrillo and Chen Liyi stood out with 17 and 12 points respectively. Other import in Tianjin, Serbian Brankica Mihajlović, was unrecognizable with four points only.

Ba’yi made an upset by beating leaders Jiangsu 3-2, which was a result that also went into favor of second-placed Zhejiang. Liu Yanhan topped Ba’yi’s scorers with 22 points while, on the other side, Zhang Changning had 26.

By downing Shanghai 3-0, thanks to 15 points from Wang Weiyi, Liaoning settled at playoff-worth spot No.4 in the standings.

In a duel of two worst-ranked teams in the league, Sichuan were better than Beijing 3-1, leaving them isolated at the bottom of the table. Sichuan’s import, Australian Rachel Rourke, played a high-level game with 32 points.

REGULAR SEASON / GROUP 1ST-8TH PLACE / 6TH ROUND

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