China's Wang Zhizhi (L2) and Zhu Fangyu hug following their victory over South Korea in the men's gold medal basketball game at the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, November 26, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]

GUANGZHOU - Defending champions China beat South Korea 77-71 to defend their men's basketball title at the Asian Games here on Friday.

The two sides played a close game from the very beginning which marked several lead changes before China, who defeated South Korea 76-66 in the preliminary round, finished the first quarter 27-21.

South Korea opened the second quarter with a 6-0 run and took the lead 37-31 with 5:10 minutes left in the quarter. Wang Shipeng's consecutive three jumpers and Sun Yue's one three point play and one 3-pointers put China 43-37 ahead at the end of the first half.

Teams shot a high percent with South Korea 67 (13-for-19) and China 59 (17-for-29), but China outscored the Korean in 3-pointer shooting 5-4.

South Korean twice trimmed the deficit to five in the third quarter before entering the fourth 56-64.

The hosts used an 8-2 spurt to expand the lead to 72-58 capped by Sun Yue's jumper. But the Korean fought back with a 13-2 charge, which included two 3-pointers, with 2:15 minutes remaining.

Trading back to back no baskets for both sides, Wang Zhizhi, who scored 20 points for China, tipped in a second chance with 50 seconds left for a 76-71 edge before Ding Jinhui hit one of two free throws to seal the victory.

Wang Zhizhi, who led all Chinese starters to score double-digit, nailed in six of his 11 in the second half. Ding Jinhui and Sun Yue each added 14 while Wang Shipeng, who hit a key 3-pointer in the last seconds to help China beat Iran 68-65 in semifinal Thursday night, and Liu Wei got 10 apiece.

South Korea had three players scoring double-figure with Kim Joo Sung and Cho Sungmin each 15 points, and guard Yang Donggeun 17.