South Korea defeated the host country China 30-23 to advance to the women's handball final at the Asian Games on Tuesday, moving within a win of winning its eighth gold medal.
Ryu Eun-hee led South Korea with seven goals, while the team also played stifling defense to turn a tight game into a comfortable win at Zhejiang Gongshang University Sports Centre in Hangzhou.
In Thursday's gold medal match, South Korea will play Japan, which defeated Kazakhstan 40-22 in the other semifinal match later Tuesday.
South Korea has won seven out of eight gold medals in women's handball since it joined the Asian Games in 1990.
South Korea took a 15-14 lead at halftime. The game opened with a strong defensive stance by South Korea, which held China to one goal in the opening seven minutes.
South Korea led 10-6 just past the 15-minute mark of the 30-minute half. But China cut it to 12-11 at 23:50 with a goal by Xin Yan.
South Korea got a little more breathing room, with consecutive goals by Kang Kyung-min and Song Ji-young giving the team a 15-12 lead with two minutes to go.
But China battled back to cut the deficit to one again at 15-14, as Zhou Mengxue scored in China's last possession of the half.
China tied things up at 15-15 about 90 seconds into the second half, but South Korea then put together a 7-3 run over the next dozen minutes to build a 22-18 advantage.
Ryu Eun-hee's 7-meter throw put South Korea up 24-19 with under 13 minutes to go, and China never threatened again.
South Korea's defense came up huge down the stretch, forcing multiple turnovers by China and holding the home team scoreless for well over 10 minutes in one stretch.
Source: Yonhap News Agency