KT Suwon head coach Song Young-jin shares his thoughts on the team’s victory over Changwon LG, which ended a four-game winning streak.
KT won 93-88 against LG in the second round of the 2023-2024 Korean Basketball Association (KBA) at the KT Sonic Boom Arena in Suwon on Nov. 28. It was a victory built on rebounding, defense, and hustle. They didn’t back down against one of the best defenses in the league. They pressured LG 온라인카지노 with a full-court press from the first quarter and outrebounded them in the second quarter.
As we created momentum on defense, we also opened up our offense. As planned, they attacked Marei in a 2-on-2 and steadily racked up points, with Paris Bass finishing with 26 points, 14 rebounds, and 7 assists, and Heo Hoon with 17 points. Moon Sung-gon scored 12 points on four three-pointers, and also had four steals and one blocked shot. He proved his worth as a defensive fixer in clutch situations. Jung Sung-woo and Lee Doo-won also scored 10 points apiece, with Lee shining in the absence of Ha Yoon-ki.
With the win, KT extended its winning streak to three games and improved to 9-5 on the season. They are tied for second place with LG, signaling that they are a title contender.
After the game, Coach Song said, “First of all, I’m happy to continue our winning streak at home. The players’ confidence has increased a lot. I think they really want to win. I hope that the fact that the players played a lot and made the atmosphere come to our side was not a big factor in our victory.”
On the press from the first quarter, he said, “We didn’t really prepare for it. The players did it on their own. We said, ‘Let’s not push, let’s be tight. I think they got more excited when they made mistakes,” he said, praising his players for their aggressive defense.
Regarding the increasingly prominent Moon Sung-gon, he said, “Hehoon and Sung-gon are both skilled players. They use their heads well and know basketball. I think it will be easier for him to adapt than the average player.” “He plays a lot at the 4, and I can see him stabilizing as we talk a lot. With Sung-gon playing good defense, the whole team is excited and the offense is working well.”
Finally, he talked about his team’s success in focusing on Marei as planned: “Honestly, we targeted him a lot, so the most important thing in today’s game was (Lee) Duwon and (Moon) Jung-hyun to bring him and set screens. Duwon did a really good job,” he said. “Duwon did commit a screen foul, but we knew we had to go to Duwon. He got a valuable rebound at the end, and he did a really good job.”
Meanwhile, LG coach Cho Sang-hyun said, “Our team is currently struggling in 5-on-5 basketball. We need to create outlets in transition after rebounding to attack. Today, we were able to catch up thanks to Lee Kwan-hee’s three-pointer in transition. It’s a shame that we didn’t do that in the first half,” she reflected on the game.
“I expected it, and I’ve seen it a lot in previous matches. We knew that if we lost in defense, we could make up for it if we had a good offense with Marais, and as a result, Marais played a lot today. We’ll give him a good rest and prepare well for tomorrow’s match.”