Published: March 7, 2018

Jimmer Fredette came away with another huge performance on Wednesday, but it wasn’t enough as the Shanghai Sharks fell to the Beijing Ducks in the second game of the best-of-three opening-round series, 101-95.

The former BYU guard totaled a game-high tying 36 points on 15-for-28 shooting from the field, including 3-for-8 from beyond the arc and 3-for-3 from the foul line. He also led the way with 10 rebounds, six assists and three steals in 48 minutes.

Fredette did most of his work in the second half as he scored 22 points and handed out four assists to carry the Sharks back from a 17-point third quarter deficit to cut the Ducks’ lead to just one in the final minute.

The Sharks wouldn’t come any closer as the Ducks drilled a three with 29 seconds left before salting the game away at the free-throw line.

Former Lone Peak High School big man Justin Hamilton led the way for Beijing with 36 points of his own on 15-for-21 shooting from the floor, including 2-for-3 from 3-point land and 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. He also had a monster night on the glass with 13 rebounds (five on the offensive end), while adding three assists, a steal and a block in 41 minutes.

Hamilton and the Ducks also got plenty of help from Aaron Jackson who returned from injury to provide 22 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the floor, including 4-for-6 from distance and 4-for-4 at the foul line. He added a game-high seven assists and three rebounds in 30 minutes of work.

Nick Minnerath also came away with a big scoring night in the losing effort with 25 points on 8-for-15 shooting to go along with six rebounds while Cai Liang added 21 points, six rebounds and two helpers in 45 minutes.

Through two playoff games, Fredette is nearly averaging a triple-double with 32.0 points on 46.2 percent shooting from the field and 100 percent from the line. He also chips in with 9.5 rebounds, 9.0 assists and 3.0 steals in 47 minutes.

Fredette and the Sharks will now have to head back out on the road for the third and deciding game of the series where they will hope to replicate the performance they had in game 1 in the nine-point win.

Game 3 will be on Saturday with the winner moving on to face the Liaoning Flying Leopards in the second round of the CBA playoffs.

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