Defending champion China almost stumbled in front of Chinese Taipei as the host survived a 102-96 overtime win on its opener of the 21st Asian women's basketball championships on Sunday.
Chinese Taipei's Chiang Hui-Yuni missed the best chance to takethe surprise win as she missed two free-throws with half minutes left in the regular time.
China, who is seeking for the third consecutive title in the event, was led by center Zhang Xiaoni's team-best 20 points and 10rebounds.
"It's a good lesson to our young team," China's head coach Tom Mahr said.
"I've been teaching the team to learn how to play defense. Butwe didn't play a good defense tonight."
The fast-paced Chinese Taipei constantly broke through China's defense to take a 31-27 lead in the first quarter.
China scored seven points in row to closed it at 40-39 but the opponents used a 12-0 run to have the biggest lead in the game at 52-39.
The lack-luster first-half performance reminds people of China's most embarrassing loss in the Asian Championships.
In the 1999 version of the tournament in Japan, China lost to Chinese Taipei 66-57 in the 3-4 placing finals and failed to make a berth in the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Star center Chen Nan, who had 16 points, seemed waking up in the third quarter as she ran for a series of successful fast-breaks to take the first lead for China after the first quarter at 70-68 and to enter the decisive period by 74-72.
Tying at 90-90 for over two minutes down the stretch, Chiang let the winning chance loose when she was on the line, but China's point guard Song Xiaoyun also committed a turnover to put the game into ovetime.
China's deep bench show the strength in the overtime as Song buried a3-pointer with 1:30 to go to make it 100-94.
"China's zone defense didn't work well for this game," said Chinese Taipei's head coach Hung Ling-Yao. "We knew we must break from the middle to win the game, and our players did great job. Unfortunately, we lost the game."
Chinese Taipei's Liu Chun-yi had the game-high 25 points on 11-out-of-13shooting in the field as the visitors shot 61 percent in the field and 60 percent from behind the arc.
(Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2005)
