Defending champion China is within one step from winning its fourth straight title at the Asian under-18 women's basketball championship after trouncing Japan 89-51 in the semifinal in Shenzhen on Wednesday.

China will face the winner of the other semifinal between South Korea and Chinese Taipei in Thursday's final, while Japan have to fight for the third place with the loser.

The Chinese team, who had a clear-cut advantage over their Japanese opponents in average height, dominated inside and the boards throughout Wednesday's match.

The host team opened the first quarter with a 30-11 lead. Zhang Wei hit three 3-pointers in the second as China stretched the lead to 53-19 at halftime.

China, who had crushed Japan 109-47 earlier in the group stage, relented after the break, allowing the Japanese to score 20 points in the third quarter, more than their total in the previous two.

Chinese head coach Sun Fengwu brought on several substitutes in the last period, hoping to rest his key players for Thursday's final. But Japan failed to take advantage of it and never pulled within to 34 points.

"I think, today we played even better than our first meeting with Japan in the group stage, though the winning margin was smaller," said Sun.

"We didn't try our utmost in the second half because we still have one match to play tomorrow. That's why I made a few substitutions in the last quarter," he added.

Zhang scored a game-high 22 points. Wang Baiyu came off the bench to add 10 points and nine rebounds for China, and center Guan Xin notched 10 points.

Chie Kabaya was the leading scorer for Japan with 12 points. Kozue Tanaka chipped in 10 points.

China shot 30-for-56 from the field, while Japan was just 16-for-47. The Chinese outplayed their opponents 49-21 in rebounding.

China went 6-for-10 from 3-point range.

The biennial regional tournament kicked off on Friday and runs through Thursday. Top two finishers of the event qualify for next year's world championship in Tunisia.

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2004)