TENERIFE, Spain, Sept. 29 -- China clawed back from a 14-point halftime deficit to beat Canada 76-71 in the fifth-eighth place classifications Saturday at the 2018 FIBA Women's World Cup to move one win away from their best result at the tournament since 1994.

China finished runners-up 24 years ago. Their previous best result since then was finishing sixth twice in 2002 and 2017.

Li Meng scored 18 points to lead China. Han Xu helped with 12 points and nine rebounds.

"We never gave up in adversities, and benefited a lot from our resistance at last," said Li.

Li hit two three-pointers in a row to kick off China's offense, but Canada went ahead through contributions from different players and got a 19-16 advantage following Natalie Achonwa's layup late in the first quarter.

China failed to restrain opponents' performance outside as Canada made three 3-pointers in a row, before leading by double figures for the first time at 30-20 on Achonwa's jumper. Canada led 48-34 into halftime.

"Players didn't execute quite well on guarding against opponents' three-pointers and fast breaks in the first half," admitted China's head coach Xu Limin.

However, the Chinese players showed their fortitude after the restart to commence an 11-0 run midway through the third quarter, and cut Canada's margin to one with Han's layup. China trailed by four points heading into the final period.

China induced another comeback early in the last quarter and led for the first time since the start of the match after Huang Sijing hit a three-pointer with 5:21 remaining.

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