Dankook University won 76-71 at home against Kookmin University in the 2023 KUSF University Basketball U-League at Dankook’s Cheonan Campus Gymnasium on Saturday. With the win, Dankook maintained sole possession of fourth place in the standings with a 6-4 record and moved closer to the playoffs. The team has a 5 percent chance of making the playoffs with seven wins. KU, which lost two straight games after winning three straight, dropped one spot to ninth place with a 4-6 record.
Na Sung-ho led the way with 21 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks, including five 3-pointers. Lee Kyung-do also helped his team to victory with an even 20 points, five rebounds, five assists, and five steals. Song Jae-hwan (11 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists), Lee Doo-ho (7 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals), Choi Kang-min (7 points, 3 rebounds), and Song In-joon (6 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks) were also integral to the win for Dankook.
Kim Jun-young finished with a game-high 24 points, four rebounds, two assists and four three-pointers, but his performance was overshadowed by his team’s loss. Freddie finished with 13 points, 18 rebounds, and three blocks.
Dankook University took the lead from the start of the game. Dankook opened the game with a three-point play by Lee Kyung-do and then took a 15-5 lead thanks 토토사이트 to consecutive three-pointers by Choi Kang-min, Lee Kyung-do, and Na Sung-ho. The score remained within 10 points until the end of the first quarter.
Dankook’s full-court pressure defense forced KU’s mistakes (7 in the first quarter) and its advantage in offensive rebounds (6-3 in the first quarter) was the driving force behind its 23-15 lead in the first quarter.
For KU, the main concern was Cho Hwan-hee, who picked up three fouls in the first quarter alone.
Dankook opened the second quarter with five straight points from Song In-joon and Na Sung-ho to go up 28-13. After maintaining a double-digit lead, Dankook fell into a scoring silence after the midway point of the second quarter and trailed 37-28.
KU turned the tide with a lucky shot clock buzzer-beating three-pointer by Song Jae-hwan at the 24-second mark. Lee Du-ho then drew Cho Hwan-hee’s fifth foul with 1:24 left.
Dankook ended the first half with a 44-32 lead.
KU had the task of overcoming a 12-point deficit in the second 20 minutes without Cho Hwan-hee. Kim Jun-young and Park Sang-woo also had three fouls.
Throughout the third quarter, KU would make a run and Dankook would pull away. Trailing 57-50 at the end of the third quarter, KU extended its lead to 12 points with five straight points from Na Sung-ho. However, with 0.3 seconds left, Freddie scored an offensive rebound followed by a layup to end the quarter with a 10-point lead, 62-52.
Despite the 10-point advantage, KU lost Lee Doo-ho to five fouls at the end of the third quarter, while Song In-joon, Song Jae-hwan, and Choi Kang-min had four fouls.
KU entered the fourth quarter in a chasing mode, as Jo Hwan-hee’s absence was filled by Kim Jun-young and mistakes (11 in the first half, 1 in the third quarter) were drastically reduced.
The fourth quarter was no different from the previous one. The teams traded baskets and continued to battle around the 10-point mark. With less than two minutes left in the game, there was suddenly a sense of tension. Dankook was in trouble after Song Jae-hwan and Choi Kang-min picked up five fouls, allowing Kim Jun-young and Yeo Chan-young to make three-point plays to cut the deficit to 74-69. There was 1 minute and 4 seconds left.
At the crunch time, Lee Kyung-do made the game-winning jumper to pull away from KU.