“Even as a head coach, I’m enjoying our basketball these days.”
Busan KCC won 98-85 at home against Seoul Samsung in the sixth round of the 2023-24 Korean Basketball Association on Tuesday at Busan Sajik Gymnasium, extending its winning streak to two games and its home winning streak to three games.
Head coach Jeon Chang-jin said after the game, “We didn’t do much defensively. Offensively, we played well. The players are having fun. Even the bench can see that the offense is running well. I’m quite satisfied. Even I, 먹튀검증 as a coach, am enjoying our basketball these days.”
“(La) Gunnar understood his role and did a good job, which made the team better. In the last game, he didn’t play much because he had an injury. I think that led to the stamina saves. When she’s in good shape, she can defend anybody and rebound well. The same goes for offense, and that’s what we saw today.”
On the day, KCC held Samsung to 85 points. In KCC basketball, which emphasizes early offense and transition games, giving up 85 points is not a big deal. So why did coach Jeon say that there was nothing much that went well defensively?
“Most of our players are small in height. A team with a strong post defense must play trap defense. Of course, it’s not the players’ responsibility to make such a choice. We played trap defense to stop Samsung Electronics, so we got hit a lot from the outside, but we didn’t make any mistakes that affected the flow of the game. It wasn’t our defense’s fault. We played a defense that covered our weaknesses, which led to a lot of outside chances for Samsung. We have to understand that and move on.”
Calvin Epistola’s surprise performance was a big factor in the game, as he scored 10 points, tying his KBL debut for most points in a game.
“Ho-hyun Lee’s shoulder is not good and he’s struggling, so we put Epistola in. He hasn’t played much. He is more tenacious in defense than offense. He knows how to defend. I put him in earlier than I thought, and he did better than I expected.”
The coach’s praise didn’t end there. “He did a good job blocking Jeong Hyun-yi. We know each other well, so we know how to play. (He showed good defense even though he had a cold. It’s a little difficult to block a player with quick feet, but he’s good at blocking a player with skills like Jung Hyun-yi. He’s hard to stop, so Chang-young did a good job.”
As for Lee Seung-hyun, who had a peak performance, he said, “I have more confidence in my offense and my defense has expanded. I’m giving him a lot of credit for getting good results now. He’s doing really well. Both offense and defense are doing their job at important moments. She plays good help defense, blocking foreign players. She even grabs rebounds.”