Santa Claus Kim Joo-sung Dedicated 20th Victory To TG

Ringing up four consecutive victories, TG has passed the 20 game victory mark for the first time in the season.

On Thursday, at the 2003 Anycall Cup regular basketball league, TG defeated SBS, 80-67.

With this victory, TG has a record of 20 victories and six losses so far, securing its first place ranking. SBS has had three consecutive losses.

Since SBS stirred up a tornado in the basketball world when it complained about bad calls and forfeited a game at the match against KCC, all the players including the head coach have not raised any objections to the referees’ calls. It was same for the leading team, TG, which is why this game finished very quickly, while the four other games were still in the mid-fourth quarter.

The outcome of the game was already decided at the end of the first half. Hall, who had a new haircut, made incredible plays, returning from the slump he had suffered from to score 19 points. Kim Joo-sung, who scored 22 points and got 11 rebounds, made an excellent play near the basket, boosting his team to lead SBS 41-30 at the end of first half.

At the third quarter, TG ran away with the score at 73-57 thanks to Kim Joo-sung and Derix, securing the victory. Though Glover revived from depression and played well, recording 21 points and eight rebounds, SBS could not stand up to the aggressive play of TG because of feeble outside play.

At Chunju, KCC defeated LG, 89-69, securing its second place ranking with 18 victories and eight losses.

At Jamsil, Samsung obtained a miraculous come-from-behind victory against SK, 86-85, thanks to Andre Ferry’s last second three-point shot.

Ferry made his successful three-point shot just 5.1 seconds before the end of the game, when Samsung was behind 83-85 against SK, giving the victory to his team.

Seo Jang-hoon, Samsung’s Korean center forward, scored 27 points and seven rebounds and dedicated his performance to his team.

Despite the complicated atmosphere caused by the resignation of the entire executive council of the Korea Basketball League, Wonju and Chunju gymnasium was crowded with 23,000 spectators.

The average number of spectators for each game was 4,600. As the average number for this season was 3,300, this means approximately 1,000 more people gathered to watch each game on this day.

Won-Hong Lee Jong-Seok Kim bluesky@donga.com kjs0123@donga.com