Ma Zengyu's rebound and layup in the last seconds help China come from back, beating Canada 73-68 on Saturday and sweeping a three-game Sino-Canada Women's Basketball Challenge.
Ma, who scored 17 points for China, rebounded and tied the score 65-65 with three seconds remaining in the fourth quarter after teammate Chen Xiaojia hit wide intentionly on her second free-throw to force the game into overtime.
The Chinese team then made a 6-0 spur while Canada, who led 62-54 with 3:10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, looked helpless in the last five minutes.
Canada played much more aggressively than the two previous games, where they only built a lead in the first quarter shortly. They led and tied several times before the overtime.
"They are much better on defense as well as offense," Chinese coach Sun Fengwu said.
"They held us to bad shooting, especially to our enters, who hardly played themselves," Sun added.
China led the half 32-23 but were held to only 17 points in the third quarter. Canada got 27 points and entered the fourth quarter with a 50-49 advantage.
China trailed 63-65 with three seconds to go in the last quarter when Chen Xiaojia drew a foul. She scored in the first free-throw but wided the second before Ma Zengyu evened the game in regulation.
Huang Hongpin came off the bench to contribute 14 points and eight rebounds and Chen Xiaojia added 10 points. 2.06-meter Wei Wei, who played 19 minutes as a starter, got nine points and six rebounds and two bloked-shots.
(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2009)
