Defending champion China came out tops for the third consecutive time on Sunday after beating South Korea 73-67 in the finals of the 21st Asian Women's Basketball Championships in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province.??

Chen Nan, who scored two points in Wednesday's 63-56 defeat by South Korea, played her best game in the competition with 25 points and eight rebounds.

 

The pivot center lifted China into the title spot almost single-handedly as she shot 10-out-of-17 in the field, when the team was down 15-35.

 

 

Guards Ren Lei and Song Xiaoyun each sank three three-pointers to give China a 40.9 shooting percentage from outside the three-point line.

 

The Koreans opened the game with a five-point lead at 5-10, but Song Xiaoyun scored 11 of her 12 points to keep China in the game. South Korea led the first quarter 19-21.

 

The 11-member deep bench gave China the edge and the first lead in the second quarter, when China led 32-31 before the half-time break.

 

Solid defense produced a series of steals, which were capitalized by fast-breaks that put the Koreans ahead again by 43-36 midway into the third quarter.

 

China used a 9-0 run to regain the lead and both sides were tied at 54-54 going into the fourth quarter.

 

Both teams struggled to pull themselves out of a one-basket-differential game, but not after Zhang Fan sank two free throws for China to take the score to 69-65 with 1:07 to go.

 

Without starting center Jung Sun-min, who was fouled out for an offensive rebound with just over two minutes left, South Korea could not find their scoring game. Ren Lei capitalized on this and netted two more free throws in her 13-point play.

 

The Koreans missed a valuable three-pointer with only 7.9 seconds to go, effectively taking them out of the running for first place.

 

Kim Yeong-ok and Beon Yeon-ha scored 19 points each for South Korea, and the team qualifies for next year's World Championships along with China and the third-placed Chinese Taipei. Next year's tournament will be held in Brazil in September 2006.

 

 

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2005)