¡¡¡¡BUSAN, Oct. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Asian champions China held off a strong late surge from South Korea to beat the hosts 80-76 here on Monday and claim the title of the women's basketball tournament at the 2002 Busan Asian Games.

¡¡¡¡Trailing 63-53 after three quarters, South Korea opened the fourth with a 21-4 run to store a 74-67 lead with four minutes and 35 seconds remaining.

¡¡¡¡China pushed back with an 9-2 run and Sui Feifei made two free throws with 1:45 to go to tie it 76-76.

¡¡¡¡Chen Luyun had a short basket with 45 seconds left and added ano pen layup nine seconds from the end to seal the victory for the Chinese women.

¡¡¡¡"It was a hard game, we endured severe mental chanllenge," said the triumphant Chinese head coach Gong Luming.

¡¡¡¡"Early in the fourth quarter, our players were not cool," he added. "I called a time-out and told them to calm down and play our advantage and they did it."

¡¡¡¡Sui Feifei led four Chinese women in double digits with 18 points, Chen Nan added 14 points and 14 rebounds.

¡¡¡¡Jung Sun-min scored a game-high 29 points to lead South Korea, who were outshot 60.4%-43.5% and outrebounded 35-20.

¡¡¡¡The South Korean women, who were known for their sharp shooters,made only two of their 13 three-point attempts.

¡¡¡¡China, who finished sixth in September's world championship in Jiangsu, China where South Korea placed fourth, kept a narrow leadin most of the first half before improving to 42-35 at the half time with a 5-0 run concluding the second quarter. Enditem