LG succeeded in reclaiming the third place.
Changwon LG beat Seoul SK 76-67 after a close game, where Heo Il-young and Oh Jae-hyun fought hard, based on their player-selected performance in the 2023-24 Jeonggwanjang Professional Basketball held at Jamsil Student Gymnasium on the 15th.
As a result, LG posted 26 wins and 17 losses, moving up to the third place, a half-game ahead of SK. SK fell one notch to the fourth place after suffering its 17th loss (25 wins) along with two consecutive losses.
The first driving force behind the victory was the successful blockade of the opponent’s main gun, Jamil Warney. For SK, Warney’s scoring is a more important part of its offense due to the gaps in Kim Sun-hyung and Ahn Young-joon. Oh Jae-hyun has been working hard recently, but if Warney’s score slows down, he has no choice but to struggle with SK’s attack.
LG developed a defensive strategy around that area, deployed successfully, and was able to win with only 19 points lost to Warney. Warney, who scored 19 points, had to experience a slump of 50% on 2-point shooting (7/14) and 17% on 3-point shooting (1/6), staying at 40% of the field goal success rate, and LG came into a break in third place.
Warney’s offense was rarely smooth from the start. Juan Tello started. Then the wingman launched a shell defense and completely reduced Warney’s radius of action. Warney was rarely able to activate his signature play, the floater.
SK, whose offensive routes were limited due to gaps in Kim Sun-hyung and Ahn Young-joon, had to have difficulty in attacking due to the Wony defense method targeted by LG. Wony attempted a total of four attacks in the first quarter. It had two two-point shots and two three-point shots. Only one of them turned into a score point. He added one free throw and ended up with three points. SK also scored only 14 points.
Tello, who mainly played Warney, only scored two points, but contributed to the early LG lead with six rebounds added to a successful defense.
In the second quarter, Josh Ibarra matched up with Warney. Warney played all 10 minutes again, leaving four points and four rebounds. Again, he failed to proceed with the attack efficiently. Although Ibarra was less defensive than Telo, LG blocked Warney by using a double team or even a triple team. In particular, when he was doing face-up from the top, he quickly blocked Warney’s movement by applying a shell defense to the paint zone at an early time.
Oh Se-geun was aggressive in attacking, but it was not easy. Active forward Jin, including Yang Hong-seok, Jung Hee-jae, Lee Kwan-hee and Justin Gutang, quickly succeeded in rotation and effectively used fouls to neutralize SK’s offense. In the end, LG gave up only 28 points in the first half to gain the upper hand.
In the third quarter, their defense was 100 percent perfect. Warney rarely got into the inside. He rarely used a floater that he made through turnaround after a smooth dribble that starts at the top.
SK made changes by changing the location of Warney’s offense, but LG blocked Warney by effectively applying a triangle defense centered on Tello. Warney, who played all 10 minutes, had five points and two rebounds. Three of them were three points. He scored only two points on the inside. It was 10 minutes when LG successfully defended Warney again.
In the fourth quarter, Warney seemed to find a solution against LG’s defense. However, it seemed a little late already. LG was in a situation where its atmosphere was elevated due to Warney’s successful defense for the previous 30 minutes.
Warney actively penetrated inside and scored six points, but failed to turn the game around again, realizing the gaps between Kim Sun-hyung and Ahn Young-joon. LG successfully applied its defense against Warney and was able to regain third place and face the national team break.
After the game, coach Cho Sang-hyun said, “Our performance was getting better little by little, but honestly, it was a game that I was worried about while preparing.” This is because SK’s defense was so good. I think we overcame SK’s defense with our defense. While the fastball came out well, the opponent’s fastball didn’t give up any.”
In the section that effectively blocked Jamil Warney, Cho said, “I prepared about three things for Warney’s defense, but today I only did help from both sides. Even though I didn’t use any other defense, he did a great job in pressing ahead of me. Telo was also really good at defending Dinai. It’s not easy for foreign players to do that, but I think that part worked out well.”
LG won a solid shield SK, which boasts the top average number of runs, through a new concept shield.