Defending champion China won the Asian women's basketball championships title for the third consecutive time on Sunday after beating South Korea 73-67.

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

The pivot center lifted China almost one-handely as she shot 10-out-of-17 in the field, when the whole team was 15-35.

Guards Ren Lei and Song Xiaoyun each had three 3-pointers to give China 40.9 shooting percent behind the arc.

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

The 11-member deep bench gave China the edge and the first lead in the second quarter, where China led 32-31 before the 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 battled for 54-54 to enter the fourth quarter.

Neither team could manage a lead more than one basket until Zhang Fan made two free-throws for China at 69-65 with 1:07 to go.

Without starting center Jung Sun-Min, who was fouled out on an offensive rebounds just over two minutes left, South Korea could not scored on the following procession, while Ren Lei made two more free-throws for her 13-point play.

The Koreans missed a 3-pointer attempt with 7.9 seconds to go, and the game was out of touch for South Korea.

Kim Yeong-Ok and Beon Yeon-Ha had 19 points each for South Korea, who qualifies for the World Championships along with China and the 3rd-placed Chinese Taipei in Brazil in September, 2006.
 
(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2005)