After a six-game stretch that saw him scored 50 points or more four times, Jimmer Fredette showed that he was human as the Shanghai Sharks got beat by the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions 119-95 on Saturday.

In a curious move, Fredette came off the bench, but still led the Sharks in scoring with 28 points on 11-for-28 shooting from the floor, including 4-for-12 from 3-point land and 2-for-2 from the foul line. He added five assists, three rebounds and two steals in 39 minutes.

After sitting for the first seven minutes of the game, Fredette got to work as he got to the basket for two first quarter lay-ups. One came on a fastbreak to open up his scoring night while the other came on a perfectly timed backdoor cut for the easy lay-in. He also did a nice job sharing the ball in the first with a pair of assists.

He followed that up with five points each in the second and third quarters, including a three in each period, but it wasn’t close to enough to help the Sharks to keep pace as they trailed by 24 heading into the fourth.

Fredette was at his best in the fourth with 14 of Shanghai’s 26 points, but the Lions were able to answer every run to keep the game out of reach.

A major problem for the Sharks in the loss was on the backboards where they were outrebounded 46-28, including 13-6 on the offensive end.

Ioannis Bourousis led the way for the Lions with 34 points on 13-for-22 shooting from the field, including 5-for-9 from beyond the arc to go along with 10 rebounds. They also got a big night from Jinqiu Hu and Courtney Fortson in the win. Hu totaled 26 points and eight rebounds while Fortson managed a triple-double with 20 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds.

Nick Minnerath added 18 points on 6-for-17 shooting from the floor for the Sharks while Yi Zhai had 10 points and three assists.

On the season, Fredette is averaging a league-leading 40.5 points on 46 percent from inside the arc, 46 percent from 3-point range and 94 percent from the foul line. He is also averaging 6.8 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 2.0 steals in 42.1 minutes.

Up next for Fredette and Shanghai is a matchup with the Zhejiang Golden Bulls who are led by Sonny Weems and Jarnell Stokes. Weems is averaging 30.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 6.5 assists while Stokes is putting up 26.6 points and 12.3 rebounds.

Photo credit: By Bagumba (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons