China won the women's basketball gold medal for the third consecutive time, beating South Korea 70-64 on Thursday at the 16th Asian Games.

Center Chen Nan grabbed the last offensive rebound on Bian Lan's second free-throw, made the lay-up and received foul again. The three-point play held the come-back of the Koreans.

This was the fifth Asian Games title for China.

Trailing 64-56 in the fourth quarter, South Korea used a 8-2 run to make it 66-64 with 1:04 minutes to go on Sin Jung Ja's jumper.

China barely made a shot on the following possession but Chen grabbed the offensive rebound to keep the lead, before Bian was fouled with 9.9 seconds to go.

Chen had 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Guan Xin had 14 points for China.

China's head coach Sun Fengwu said, "We had a bad trip at the World Championships. We know we didn't focus on some matches. This time we did better throughout the tournament. I'm happy my team could walk out of the shadow."

China finished the worst-ever 13th at the World Championships in the Czech Republic in September.

China's captain Miao Lijie, who had 11 points, said, "This was an important gold medal for our team. We're on the road of re-building. It's not an easy finals game."

Guard Beon Yeonha played the maximum 40 minutes to score 23 points, but she fouled on Bian down the stretch.

South Korea took an early lead at the beginning and kept China on the ground by 16-15 in the first quarter.

"We didn't do the job on the offensive end at the start, but we re-organized and found the rhythm in the following game," Chen said.

China opened the second quarter with a 19-6 run to have the lead for good, though the Koreans never gave up the chasing.

The Koreans came as close as 47-45 in the third quarter and made it a 2-point game again in the fourth period, but fell short each time.

In previous 3-4 placing finals, Japan beat defending runners-up Chinese Taipei 73-61 to win the bronze medals.

This was the second straight bronze medal for Japan, which was led by Yoko Nagi's 26 points.

Chinese Taipei failed to repeat their strong run at the 15th Asian Games in Doha, finishing without medals for the first time since the 13th Asian Games in Bangkok.

(Xinhua News Agency November 25, 2010)