KB Stars beat Woori Bank with Nagata's winning goal and dragged it to the 5th round of the Geary PO
Mar 08, 2025
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KB Stars finally overcame the moment of upset loss in the fourth quarter with defense in the fourth playoff (PO) game against Woori Bank in the 「Hana Bank 2024-2025 Women's Professional Basketball」 held at Cheongju Gymnasium on the 8th, winning 62-61, another point difference, making the entire series 2-2 with a victory.
As a result, Asan, Woori Bank's home, will determine the team that will advance to the championship match in Game 5 on the 10th at Soonshin Gymnasium. It's the first time in history that I've gone from PO to the final 5th game. Woori Bank ranked first and KB Stars ranked fourth in the regular league, but the difference in skills was not large enough for the two teams to compete within six points in all six face-to-face matches, and the overall downward leveling of the team was achieved this season, which was also shown in the PO.
KB's offense was so strong that four players combined with 11 three-pointers, while Woori Bank's Kim Dan-bi, the core of offense and defense and responsible for two wins in PO, failed to show explosive performance in offense due to physical limitations. Woori Bank succeeded in turning the tables in the fourth quarter with three players, including Shim Sung-young, Kim Ye-jin and Natsuki, making as many as six 3-pointers together, but as in the second game, Kim Dan-bi's last attack failed and suffered a one-point comeback loss. For Woori Bank, Kim Dan-bi needs to recover his form in Game 5 and other players must support him like in the fourth quarter to be able to reach the championship for four consecutive seasons.
For KB, it continued its winning streak and literally won a hard time due to Woori Bank's strong defense and outer artillery.
KB overwhelmed their opponents in the first half, with Heo Ye-eun, Kang Yi-seul, Lee Chae-eun and Song Yoon-ha stepping up and hitting four three points each in the first and second quarters. Woori Bank was dragged throughout as Natsuki and Park Hye-mi hit three 3-pointers, but Kim Dan-bi was blocked by KB's rotation defense, scoring only six points in the second quarter following one free throw in the first quarter. KB, which led 39-29 in the first half, did not slow down its attack in the third quarter.
Kang Yi-seul's lucky three-point bank shot began the third quarter, followed by another three-point Kang Yi-seul's three-point shot, and Song Yoon-ha's middle shot followed by Huh Ye-eun's still and Song Yoon-ha's middle shot, leading to a 16-point deficit with 49-33.
However, Woori Bank also had the potential of the first-place team in the regular league. With Kim Dan-bi's poor shooting sense, he saved his physical strength after the start of the fourth quarter and blocked ball handler Huh Ye-eun with a surprise double team defense to tie the opponent to three points for more than seven minutes, creating an incredible scene in which middle and old players who played for KB, including Shim Sung-young and Kim Ye-jin, hit as many as five three points in a row, tying the game 58-58 with 2:44 left. Then, with 1:56 left, Natsuki's three-point right corner was added, and he succeeded in turning the game around 61-60.
However, KB made a comeback again when Nagata Moe, the buzzer-beater hero of the second game, crawled a shot under the basket with 4.1 seconds left, which became the winning goal again. Woori Bank's pass was delivered to Kim Dan-bi, who was guarding under the basket in the last attack, but failed to score after being blocked by the double team's defense and the game ended as it was.
KB played an even game, with Kang Yi-seul scoring 17 points, Heo Ye-eun 13 points and Nagata scoring 12 points, including the winning goal, acting as a point guard instead of Heo Ye-eun and delivering as many as 10 assists. Woori Bank's Kim Dan-bi again played a triple double-class with 13 points, 16 rebounds and 5 assists, but failed to prevent KB's last concentration.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
