On August 31st, the NBL semi-finals officially kicked off with Shijiazhuang Xianglan losing 106-100 to the defending champions Anhui Weyi in an away game, failing to pull off an upset victory.
In this game, Shijiazhuang Xianglan started off with a good momentum, keeping up with the score. They even managed to catch up after trailing by 10 points thanks to the efforts of Williams and Ennis, leading to a back-and-forth battle between the two teams. However, at the critical moment, Shijiazhuang couldn’t hold on and allowed Gillenwater to score consecutively. With Jackson’s two successful free throws, Shijiazhuang lost its last chance.
Shijiazhuang’s Ennis and Williams performed quite well in this match, the only downside being their three-point shooting, hitting just 2 out of 10 attempts; a slightly better accuracy could have resulted in an upset win. Ennis made 11 out of 18 shots, scoring a team-high 29 points with 9 rebounds and 3 assists, but showed some lack of composure at the end, committing a technical foul for shoving Gillenwater; Williams came off the bench hot, but unfortunately couldn’t maintain his form, making 10 out of 23 attempts throughout the game for 23 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists.