‘It’s not over ’till it’s over… ‘
KB Stars, armed with two mottos, the pride of defending champions and the possibility that seemed like a thread, but was eventually caught up in Hana One Q again.
KB Stars lost 69 to 82 to the home team, Hana One Q, in the ‘Shinhan Bank SOL 2022-2023 Women’s Professional Basketball’ held at the Bucheon Indoor Gymnasium on the 15th. With this, the ride with 4th place BNK SUM widened a little by 4.5 games. As a result, KB has to win all of the remaining 4 games, and BNK must lose all of the remaining 5 games to go to the playoffs. It can never be an easy situation. In addition, as KB lost that day, Shinhan Bank, which ranked third, was confirmed to advance to the playoffs.
In fact, it was a situation where KB was very proud. Hana 1 Q, which was already ranked at the bottom, had only 3 wins until the previous game, and 2 of them were won by KB.
In addition, on the 1st, when Park Ji-soo, who became more healthy after the All-Star break, was running terribly toward the playoffs with 4 wins in a row, in the face-to-face confrontation with Hana 1 Q, he allowed a buzzer beater tie at the end of the game, and lost in overtime, and his momentum collapsed. Also, in this game, 보증놀이터 Park Ji-soo, who was making a block shot in the 4th quarter, suffered a finger injury. In addition, they lost again to Hana 1 Q that day, and the match between the two teams ended with a score of 3 wins and 3 losses.
Hana 1 Q players were full of confidence against KB, which was missing three starting pitchers, including Park Ji-soo, Yum Yoon-ah, who was out for the season due to an ankle injury, and Kim Min-jung, who could not come to the stadium that day due to a neck injury.
KB started off well. Kang Isul, the main gun, scored 8 points, including two 3-pointers, along with Sim Seong-yeong, 6 points, and Lee Yoon-mi, 5 points, leading the first quarter by 25-17. However, the atmosphere changed as soon as Hana 1Q ace Shin Ji-hyun, who took a break for nearly 4 minutes in the 1st quarter, was put in in the 2nd quarter. Shin Ji-hyeon scored 9 points, Yang In-young scored 4 points, and Hana 1 Q finished the first half with a 35-38 chase.
Then, in the third quarter, Jeong Ye-rim’s 3 points exploded and the score was overturned to 45-44. KB caught up again to 54-54 with a minute left at the end of the third quarter with Choi Hee-jin and Kang I-seul’s 3 consecutive points, but the gap with the three starters revealed more loopholes in defense than offense. Hana One Q ran to 71-58 in the middle of the 4th quarter, with Kim Ye-jin’s inner and outer guns, Kim A-na, Shin Ji-hyeon and Yang In-young evenly scoring, and it was not overturned in the end.
Shin Ji-hyun led the attack with 26 points, and five players, including Yang In-young, Jeong Ye-rim, Kim Ye-jin, and Kim Anna, scored double-digit points, making the team the most points this season.