The hosts came into the final after seven straight wins, including narrow victories over Iran in the semifinals and lowly Qatar in the quarterfinals.
South Korea opened the second quarter with a 16-4 run to take a 37-31 lead, but China stormed back before halftime to take a 43-37 advantage.
China never trailed after that, though they weren’t able to put the game out of reach. South Korea clawed back to 74-71 with about 2 minutes left, and China missed five of six free throw attempts in the last 30 seconds.
Yang Dong-geun scored 17 points for Korea.
In women's basketball, China led for most of the game and held on as South Korea pulled to within two points with 30 seconds left for a 70-64 win in the final game. Japan beat Taiwan 73-61 for bronze.
Wang Shipeng hit a key 3-pointer in the final seconds and finished with 20 points to help China beat Iran 68-65. Kim Joo-sung scored 13 points and had nine rebounds as South Korea beat Japan 55-51.
