WUHAN (2015 FIBA Asia Women's Championship) - Quite a few hearts did flutter at the Wuhan Sports Center on Sunday when hosts China headed to the locker-room break down 27-29 in their game against archrivals Korea.

But back from the break, it was a reinvigorated Chinese team which ran the opponents roughshod limiting them to as many points as in the first half, but scoring twenty extra points that they did to eventually emerge easy winners.

"It took time for us to adjust to the pace of the game," said spearhead Sun Mengran.

"But I think once we settled down we did alright," said the 23-year-old who is well developing to be a steady replacement for the now-retired legend Nan Chen.

"I think we were too eager in our offensive plays in the first half," said China coach Tom Maher.

"They [China players] are coming out with all the needed energy. They are certainly playing with their hearts. But you got to use your brains as well," said the Aussie, who last year helmed China to a sixth-place finish at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women.

"There's nothing that we are doing wrong," Maher explained about China's low rate of return from the foul-stripe. China saw success only in half of their 16 free-throw attempts.

"Sometimes we'll get 16 out of 16. So I can't really pin point why didn't we get more. But I'm sure we are doing nothing wrong," he said.

China didn't have a great day in their outside shooting as well - only six of their 15 attempts from beyond the arc finding the mark.

Veteran playmaker Chen Xiaojia, who had a three out of those in five attempts said: "We are doing fine. There's nothing to worry. When we play a strong team like Korea, the situation gets very different.

"So we need to do things differently. As long as we work on that we're fine," said the 27-year-old guard.

FIBA