THE NUMBERS

NCCU are 9-0 at AUBL all-time. SJTU are 3-1 this year, after going 1-3 and finishing eighth at AUBL25.

The two teams score in completely different ways. SJTU take 41.1% of their shots from behind the arc and connect on 37.5% — the best three-point percentage of any team in the tournament. NCCU take just 19.1% of their shots from three and hit 29.6%.

On the boards, NCCU pull down 47.0 rebounds a game to SJTU's 36.8 — and 18.2 of NCCU's are offensive, to SJTU's 10.0.

Ball security runs the other direction. NCCU turn it over 17.0 times a game; SJTU 23.0. But the number Shanghai has to be most wary of: NCCU averages 11.2 points off turnovers and 15 on the fast break — more than double SJTU on both fronts.

THE WANG YAN QUESTION

SJTU centre Wang Yan (王岩) was injured in the semifinal against Tsinghua. If he cannot play tonight, the entire matchup changes.

Shanghai do have size behind him on paper — Guo Haoshan (205cm) and Wu Ji (202cm) — but between them, they have played a total of 16 minutes across the entire tournament and scored zero points.

Wang Yan, at 205cm and 110kg, is the tallest man on the roster and SJTU's primary centre. He has started all four games, averaging 6.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.25 blocks in 25.8 minutes on 52.4% shooting. He is also the only player who has guarded Boubacar Mboup for any real length of time — logging 27 minutes against NCCU in the group stage on August 3, and pulling seven rebounds, three of them offensive.

Mboup stands 208cm and averages 14.8 points and 11.8 rebounds, with six double-doubles in his AUBL career. If Wang Yan cannot go, this is the matchup to watch — especially with SJTU already conceding 18.2 offensive rebounds a game.

CHEN TIANCAN'S LOAD

At 175cm, Chen Tiancan is SJTU's primary ball handler and go-to scorer, and he averages 39.2 minutes a game. Across four straight games at 20 points and 7.8 assists a night, the question is whether he can keep the odds-defying pace that has kept SJTU alive.

At AUBL25, Tiancan averaged just 6.6 points a game — but with SJTU's two main scorers having left the program, he seems to have stepped up with ease to carry the load. If Wang Yan cannot go, we'll find out how Tiancan scores without his go-to pick-and-roll partner.

NCCU'S TEAM BASKETBALL

Four games, four different leading scorers. Hsu Te Chi had 22 against SJTU. Lin Tzu Hao 15 against NUM. Wang Wei Jia 11 against Yonsei. Hsieh Yun Da 26 against Waseda. Six NCCU players average at least 8.5 points a game, and nobody averages more than 14.8. This is a team that lives off the pass — 53.7% of their points come from an assist.

Behind this consistent guard lineup is Mboup, the only player in AUBL history with six double-doubles, currently averaging 14.8 and 11.8 this season.

WHAT'S AT STAKE

NCCU are playing for a second straight title, and a 10-0 AUBL record. SJTU are playing for the first trophy in the program's AUBL history — eight days after they arrived as the team that finished 8th.

One has never lost. The other has spent the entire week making history — beating teams they have never beaten before.