The Americans, runners-up in the last version of the event when they lost to Spain in Palma, Spain, led for most of the game to smash China's hope to store the first gold in the Universiade since 1993.

The Czech Republic won the bronze medal with a 91-71 victory over Lithuania in an earlier game.

Shereka Wright had a game-high 22 points and grabbed nine rebounds, while her American teammate Ayana Walker contributed 19 points and 19 rebounds.

Jenny Roulier knocked down three 3-pointers out of four to score 15 points, with Kara Lawson also 3-4 from behind the arc at 13 points, as the Americans shot 50% (9-18) on 3-pointers.

China was led by guard Miao Lijie's 17 points, who shot as low as 5-17 in the field. Centers duo Chen Nan and Chen Xiaoli had 13 points each with Chen Nan adding 10 rebounds.

"We had a great deal of respect to the Chinese team, and we played the game as if we are playing in the NCAA championship game, " said American head coach Debbie Ryan.

"We had the right persons to shoot the ball as our 3-pointers just going down. Kara Lawson and Jenny Roulier had a big game today. I know Kara lives to dive into such a game as tonight," She added.

China's assistant coach replaced head coach Gong Luming to attend the after-game press conference.

"We had some problems on the offence though made some improvement on the defence," he said. "The U.S. team is better than us on every aspect, and it's not surprise for them beating us again."

The American team met China in a four-nation tournament in Zhang Jiagang earlier this month when they won 93-90.

China shot 33% in the field and lost ground on rebounds, 32-42.

After a scrambled start, Americans picked up the offence first with Roulier's three-pointer.

The Chinese girls, who lost to the U.S. in the second round, produced great pressures on the board and forced a series of offensive rebounds to have the first basket on Hu Xiaotao's layup 1:40 minutes into the game.

They took a lead at 9-7 midway in the first quarter but saw Americans using a 12-2 run, in which Walker scoring nine points straightly, to make it 22-16.

Both sides executed well on offence and tried hard to put the game under their own control when they fought out a 20-20 even second-quarter match, with the score-line at 45-41 in favor of the Americans.

The third quarter had seemed to be called up with a same ending, but point guard Ashley McElhiney beat the buzzer to hit a 3-pointer, extending the lead to 65-58 to enter the fourth quarter.

There was no miracle in the fourth quarter.

Chen Luyun scored the first basket of the quarter before the Americans broke away with 10 straight points.

China made a surge-up after that to close up at 67-77 with Miao Lijie's 3-pointer and two free-throws, and Chen Nan's layup, but the time was wading and their efforts fell short.

(Xinhua News Agency 08/31/2001)