Asia League’s Summer Super 8 tournament today drew to a close at the Macao East Asian Games Dome. Guangzhou Long-Lions defeated Seoul Samsung Thunders 78-72 in the final to claim the Championship, while ETLand Elephants won 67-62 over NLEX Road Warriors to take third place.

A snapshot of today’s action is below:

Finals – Seoul Samsung Thunders 72-78 Guangzhou Long-Lions

The Championship game tipped-off at 7 P.M. between Guangzhou Long-Lions and Samsung Thunders. The two teams had already met in group stages with the South Korean team coming out on top at 78-73. Guangzhou dominated early on to take a 13-point lead at 23-10 at the end of first quarter. In the next two quarters, scoring was end to end, making it hard for Samsung to close the gap. Guangzhou led by 12 points at 59-47 at the end of third quarter. Samsung Thunders then started to make 3-pointers rain and scored a 11-0 run in the fourth quarter. They continued this momentum to close in to as little as 3 points behind at 66-69. Under the leadership of Ju Mingxin, Guangzhou Long-Lions held strong against their opponent’s last stand to claim the Summer Super 8 crown with a final score of 78-72. Ju Mingxin, who scored 25 points in this game, was awarded MVP of the Championship game. 

Third-place play-off – ETLand Elephants 67-62 NLEX Road Warriors

Earlier at 5 P.M., the third-place play-off was staged between ETLand Elephants and NLEX Road Warriors. In the first quarter, both teams started cold only making 1 of 15 3-point attempts. ETLand were the first to settle into their stride in the second quarter, but the Filipino team rapidly raised their game to come within 7 points of the leaders at the end of the first half. In the second half, ETLand quickly stretched the lead leaving NLEX no choice other than to respond with a strong 13-0 run. NLEX then committed several desperate fouls as the game started to slip away from them. ETLand managed to remain focused to take the victory. ETLand Elephants won 67-62 over NLEX Road Warriors, securing third-place.