Woori Bank Smiles First

The Woori Bank gained a win in advance in the first match of the 2003 summer league Cup Finals of the Women`s Professional Basketball.

The Woori Bank beat the Samsung Life Insurance yesterday by 81-71 at the Suwon Indoor Gymnasium, as foreign player Catching, who joined the Woori Bank since the playoff, showed a brilliant performance on the day.

The Woori Bank, therefore, earned its first victory of the Cup Finals where 3 prior victories to be the champion while marking its 10th consecutive victory of the regular season. The second match will be held in Cheuncheon Sunday.

“Two players could not stop one player. She was mightier than we thought.”

Manager Park In-gyu of the Samsung said after the game that the reason behind the loss was lack of preparation against Catching. Caching scored 28 points and caught 14 rebounds on the day, even in the midst of firm defense of Samsung players.

“I thought I would feel tired because of the time difference. But, somehow, I feel so comfortable playing here. It is like having returned from a short vacation from the State,” Caching, who joined the Woori right after the regular league of the Women`s National Basketball Association (WNBA) said, showing her confidence.

The greatest interest of the match lied on the competition of Caching and Wauters (17 points, 20 rebounds), a Belgium player of the Samsung. Caching(1.83m) is smaller than Wausters(1.95m), but showed mightier speed, power and flexibility. Caching dominated the match. When Wausters was blocking her, she slipped her away with her outstanding speed and scored drive-in shoots and when she did not come forward while blocking the path, she scored 3-score shoots.

While defenders of the Samsung enclosed Cashing, the Woori seize the opportunity.

Jo Hye-jin (21 points) could succeed in many of long range shoots, and Lee Jeong-ae(1.87) and Heong Hyeon-hee(1.91) also could get many of rebounds easily.

The Woori once took the lead by 36-21 in the early half, with brilliant performance by Jo Hae-jin and Caching. The Samsung chased the Woori by 62-57 at the third quarter, while showing aggressive defense. However, the score gap widened as Caching performed marvelous play in the last quarter.

Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com