Jimmer Fredette overcame a difficult shooting night from the floor by going perfect from the free-throw line as the Shanghai Sharks held on to beat the Qingdao Eagles 118-111 on Friday night.

The Former BYU guard led the way with 33 points on 16-for-16 shooting from the charity stripe. He also added six rebounds, a season-high five steals and a pair of assists in 40 minutes of action. He was 7-for-25 shooting from the floor, including 3-for-11 from 3-point land.

After struggling on the backboards much of the season, Shanghai owned the glass in the seven-point win with a 50-37 rebounding edge, including 20-9 on the offensive end. That helped to offset a night where the Sharks connected on just 11 of 29 attempts from beyond the arc to still secure the important win.

Nick Minnerath also played a huge role for the Sharks as they improved to 9-10 at the halfway point of the season. He totaled 30 points on 7-for-7 from the foul line to go along with a season-best 18 rebounds.

Hanchen Luo had one of his most productive games of the season as well as he recorded 18 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Dong Hanlin added 12 points, 12 rebounds and five assists, while Wei Lu managed 13 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field.

Jonathan Gibson paced the Eagles with 45 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists while Wei Su chipped in with 19 points, six rebounds and four assists.

Through 19 games, Fredette is averaging 38.3 points on 43 percent shooting from inside the arc, 45 percent from distance and 96 percent from the foul line. He also chips in with 7.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 2.1 steals 41 minutes.

Fredette and the Sharks will be back on the floor on Sunday to start the second half of the season against the Guangzhou Long-Lions.

The long-Lions are 10-9 on the season after a 128-117 loss to the Shenzhen Leopards. Some players to watch are former NBA players Semaj Christon and Tyler Hansbrough. Christon is averaging 27.2 points, 5.9 assists and 3.5 rebounds since replacing Kyle Fogg who went down with an injury.

Hansbrough isn’t as much of a scoring threat but is still having a really nice first season in China averaging 19.9 points and 11.2 rebounds.

It will be the second meeting of the season between the two teams. Guangzhou won the first matchup, 118-102 in the first game of the year.

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