Frozen Hands, Goal Freeze

May be it was the 10 below weather that froze their hands.

The players` hands were stiff inside the gym. The combined score for the two teams was a even 100.

Kookmin Bank`s Savers beat Samsung Life women`s basketball team Bichumi in their lowest scoring game and rose to second place.

Kookmin Bank beat Samsung Life 57-43 at the 2002 New Kookmin Bank Winter League which opened at the Soowon Gymnasium on January 2. Kookmin Bank is now 5-3 and is half a game behind number one team, Shinsege.

The 43 points that Samsung Life scored this day broke the 46 point record set by Kookmin Bank in the 1999 Winter League game against Hanvit Bank. Moreover, Samsung Life scored no points for eight minutes and thirty-five seconds in the fourth quarter, closed by scoring only three points, and suffered the humiliation of tying the record for the lowest amount of points scored in a quarter. Samsung Life did manage avoiding the record for the lowest score in a quarter with Philips scoring 2.5 seconds before the end of the game.

After the game, Samsung Life coach Yoo Soo-Jong said with disappointment, "I have not experienced many games like this in my twenty years of coaching." Sports TV commentator coach Choi Hee-Am said, "It was as frozen a game as the weather."

Kookmin Bank foreign player S. Brown scored six points, guarded the goal with 16 rebounds, and made 6 block shots. Guard Kim Ji-Yoon scored 17 points and led the offense with 6 assists.

Samsung Life, which played two days in a row and experienced delays in consolidating the team play, lost two games and ended in fourth place with 4-4.

In Choonchun, Hyundai Hyperion beat Hanvit Bank Hansae 73-69 in their first encounter of the season, continuing a four-win winning streak after losing three games straight. Hyundai`s Kim Young-Ok, a graduate of Choonchun High School, seemed to gather strength from the fans` cheer and led both teams in individual scoring with 21 points. Foreign player center Sanford also scored 17 points and kept up her name with 8 rebounds.

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com