China set up a final with South Korea by beating Iran 68-65 in a thrilling semifinal at the Guangzhou Asian Games men's basketball tournament here on Thursday.

It wasn't decided who would be the winners with 5:10 minutes left when China trailed 56-59 in the rematch of the Asian Championship last year, before three consecutive 3-pointers, two from Wang Zhizhi and one from Wang Shipeng, put the hosts a 65-64 ahead.

Then Mahdi Kamrani hit one of two free throws to tie the game. With only 13 seconds remaining, China's sharpshooter Wang Shipeng netted his fourth 3-pointer to seal the victory, gave his country a sweet revenge for last year's defeat.

Wang Shipeng scored 20 pionts for China, who will meet South Korea on Friday for the gold medal. The Korean edged Japan 55-51 early Thursday.

"We have been carried a lot since the 2009 Asian Championships, we didn't play well in Tianjin," said Wang Shipeng. "We have been preparing for the game against Iran since the first play of the Asian Games and we put down all the burdens now."

Wang Zhizhi was only other Chinese player to score double-digit with 15 points, including 2-for-2 3-pointer. The former NBA player also had nine rebounds, two assists and two blocks.

Iran, who had to settle for the bronze medal with Japan on Friday, had three players to finish double-figure. Mahdi Kamrani got 19, Hamed Afagh 14 and Oshin Sahakina 12.

China opened badly and made only 2 of 10 field goals to lag behind 12-8in the first quarter. That was China's lowerst score in any quarter of this tournament.

Improving their defense and offense, China took a 21-20 lead after four times tied and five lead changes to finish halftime 29-28.

China led the third quarter 48-47. But Iran opened the fourth with a 12-4 for a 59-52 advantage, the biggest one in the game before the Chinese rallied back with a 12-6 finish.

(Xinhua News Agency November 25, 2010)