Korean Women's Basketball Team Suffers Two Consecutive Losses to Japan... Kang Lee-seul Says, "We Need to Reflect on Shrinking Back When Pursued"

The South Korean women's national basketball team, which wrapped up its away friendly series against Japan with two consecutive losses, expressed disappointment over the results while also finding positive takeaways.

Kang Lee-seul (Woori Bank), the national team's star shooter, shared her thoughts through the Korea Basketball Association after the second friendly match against Japan held in Tokyo yesterday (the 14th), saying, "Although the result was a disappointing loss, there were many aspects of the game's content from which we gained a lot."

She stated, "The most positive aspect was that, after a poor performance and a wide margin of defeat the previous day, we immediately regrouped and played a good game the very next day," adding, "The players did not shy away from physical contact from the early stages of the game and successfully executed our prepared tactics, which allowed us to bring a good atmosphere."

Ahead of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Cup and the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games next month, the women's national team played an away friendly series against Japan in Tokyo on the 13th and 14th.

After suffering a heavy 59-77 defeat the day before yesterday, the national team narrowly lost yesterday's match 77-78 by a single point.

In the second match, the team led throughout the game only to suffer a come-from-behind defeat in the dying moments as they consecutively allowed perimeter shots to Japan's 2006-born guard Kokoro Tanaka.

Kang, who fought hard with 20 points in the second match, said, "Remembering how the atmosphere in the first quarter of the first match dragged us down until the end, we talked about starting well from the first quarter in the second match, and it led to a good flow from the beginning," adding, "Team play worked well in the first quarter, and everyone moved and communicated constantly on both offense and defense."

Regarding allowing a comeback in the fourth quarter, she reflected, "While the opponent's shots went in well, we should have maintained the score gap so that such a situation wouldn't arise," and noted, "We also need to reflect on becoming timid when being pursued."

She emphasized, "We must acknowledge that objectively there is a gap with Japan," but added, "Through this process, the entire team gained the confidence that we can do it, and we clearly learned what kind of play we need to pursue moving forward."

National team forward Lee Hae-ran (Samsung Life Insurance) said, "The ball movement went smoother than in the first match, but missing easy scoring opportunities, defensive mistakes, and failing to stay focused when Japan narrowed the score gap remain regrettable," adding, "As a team we played a good game, but I am still not satisfied with my individual performance."

Recording 12 points and 5 rebounds in the first match and 17 points and 5 rebounds in the second, she added, "Many of the opposing players assigned to guard me exclusively are centers, so they tend to be slower on their feet," and noted, "I utilized that by leveraging my strength, speed, in our offense, and confirming that this works even against Japan gave me a great boost in confidence."

(Photo provided by Japan Basketball Association, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.