On May 27th, the news that HQU men's basketball team entered the semi-finals of the 20th CUBA after three-year absence blew up on social media of HQU faculty, students and alumni.
That night, the final 24 of the 20th CUBA ended perfectly in Jilin Police College. After 6-day fierce competition, Central South University, Peking University, Huaqiao University and Civil Aviation University of China marched into the national finals.
HQU, as the runner-up of CUBA Southeast Division, lost the first battle to China University of Mining and Technology 77:84 in the group stage of the final 24 launched on May 22nd. Despite of that, HQU bounced back in the following competitions by successively defeating Wuhan University of Technology 91:88, Inner Mongolia Normal University 102:54, Shanxi University of Finance & Economics 77:67 and Peking University 78:75, and finally reached the quarter-finals.
During the quarter-finals on the evening of May 27th, HQU defeated Tsinghua University 66:62 with a 3-pointer and a free throw at the last second by Meng Xiang (9). It has been three years since the last time HQU progressed to the semi-finals.
On June 6th-9th, the 20th CUBA Finals will be held in Tianjin. In the semi-finals HQU men's basketball team will be drawn against Peking University, the old rival in the group stage of the final 24.
HQU men's basketball team celebrates after victory.