Professional basketball team Anyang Kwanjang defeated Seoul Samsung to end a seven-game losing streak.
The team won 84-75 at home against Samsung in the 2023-2024 Jungkwanjang Professional Basketball League regular season at Anyang Gymnasium in Gyeonggi Province on Saturday.
The team, which had recently lost seven straight games, dropped foreign player Omari Spellman on Dec. 12 and played only one foreign player, Darryl Monroe, but beat last-place Samsung for its first win in nearly three weeks since Nov. 21 against Daegu’s Korea Gas Corporation.
Chung dropped the first quarter, 18-25, but bounced back in the second and went into halftime with a 44-40 lead.
In the third quarter, they held Samsung to just 12 points and scored 27 points to take control. In the fourth quarter, they extended their lead to 21 points, 73-52.
Jung Kwan-jang got 18 points from shooter Bae Byung-jun and Monroe filled in for Spellman with 15 points, 16 rebounds and six assists.
Chung Kwan-jang, who improved to 10-11, moved into sole possession of fifth place in the standings, ahead of Busan KCC (8-9) without a win.
Samsung, led by Lee Won-seok (23 points, nine rebounds) and Kofi Coburn (21 points, 14 rebounds, six assists), was looking for its second straight win but was hampered by poor shooting from beyond the arc, making just three of 21 attempts from 3-point range.
Seoul SK hosted the Ulsan Hyundai Mobis and defeated them 85-77.
At 12-8, SK remained in fourth place and pulled within one game of third-place Suwon KT (13-7).
SK was tied with Hyundai Mobis at 72-70 midway through the fourth quarter before consecutive baskets by Oh Se-geun, Oh Jae-hyun, and Ahn Young-joon pushed the lead to eight points with just over four minutes remaining.
The points by Oh and Ahn were answered by SK’s long-range offense.
Hyundai Mobis called a timeout to regroup, but Gage Prim missed a three-pointer, allowing SK to take a 10-point lead on a two-point play by Oh Jae-hyun with 3:13 left in the game.
For SK, Jamil Warney put on a “one-man show” with 40 points, 14 rebounds, and eight assists. SK also dominated the rebounding battle, outrebounding Hyundai Mobis 43-24.
In Daegu, KOGAS defeated Changwon LG 88-69 to move into sole possession of ninth place.
Notably, KOGAS snapped an eight-game losing streak against LG, which lost all six games last season and lost both meetings in the first and second rounds this year.
With a 5-16 record, KOGAS pushed Samsung (4-17) to 10th place and moved up half a spot from tied for ninth to sole possession of ninth place.
At the end of the third quarter, LG held a slim 62-60 lead, but KOG turned the game around in the fourth quarter, led by the duo of Andrew Nicholson (26 points) and Samjosef Belangel (23 points).
LG scored just seven points in the fourth quarter and failed to extend its winning streak to seven games. 토토사이트