Women`s Basketball, Shinsegae Off to a Good Start

The Shinsegae Coolcat won the victory in the opening game.

The Shinsegae had failed to earn the championship title despite its rank in the first place in the regular season of the 2001 winter league. But the Shinsegae expressed its volition to take the title, defeating 89-81, the defending champion Samsung Life Insurance Bichumi in the opening game of the Shinsegae E-Mart Women`s Professional Basketball Summer League at Jangchung Stadium in Seoul yesterday.

Jung Eun-Soon (Samsung Life Insurance) who had recorded 1497 points until the end of the winter league, broke through 1500 points by adding 17 points (7 rebounds) for the first time in the women`s basketball history, but her new record building was shaded by the team`s loss. On the other hand, Jung Sun-Min (Shinsegae) who had recorded 590 rebounds, added 13 rebounds, and she became the fourth player recording over 600 rebounds in the women`s basketball history.

The four-time champion team, Samsung Life Insurance and the two-time champion team, Shinsegae, has played very exciting seesaw game from the beginning.

The Shinsegae seemed to lead easily with the consecutive points by Jang Sun-Hyung, a Latvian Anda, and Jung Sun-Min at the beginning of the first quarter. But allowing the Samsung`s chase with Park Jung-Eun`s three point shots, Shinsegae finished the first quarter, led by 23-15. The priority of the Samsung Life Insurance continued until the end of the first half (52-45).

The Shinsegae who had been behind until the beginning of the third quarter, found the thread to chase the Samsung with Lee Eun-Joo`s three point shot in the situation led by 67-62. And as Yoon Mi-Yeon intercepted the ball from Jung Eun-Soon and Jung Sun-Min converted it to a goal, tying the game (67-67).

The conclusion of the game was actually decided in the final quarter. The Samsung Life Insurance tried to reverse the mood, substituting for a veteran Yoo Young-Joo (30) who had not played in the winter league due to the injury, but the tight balance has been continued to the score of 74-74.

However, as the Samsung players have rapidly lost the concentration on the game, the hegemony of the game was taken over to the Shinsegae. While the shots of Jung Eun-Soon, Yoo Young-Joo and Kim Kye-Ryung missed the rim, the Shinsegae steadily collected the points and finally finished the game leading by 8 points.

Meanwhile, while Anda (1m 93, Shinsegae) showed the possibility of success in the Korean stage, recording 15 rebounds and 14 points, Angel White (1m 89, Samsung Life Insurance) showed the poor performance recording no point for the playing time of 2 minutes and 50 seconds.

Kim Sang-Ho hyangsan@donga.com