China Women Basketball won the 21st Asian women's basketball championships title on Sunday, June 26,2005. (Agencies)

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 defence 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 pocession, 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.

(Agencies)