Korean men’s basketball defeats Japan’s national team, the best member of the Olympics

South Korea, led by head coach Ahn Joon-ho, defeated Japan 85-84 in the first round of the Softbank Cup at Ariake Arena in Tokyo on the 5th.

In the FIBA world rankings, Japan is 26th and Korea is 50th. 메이저놀이터

In addition, Korea has set up a national team centered on young athletes with an average age of 24 at this year’s event, while Japan has faced off as the best member to compete in the Paris Olympics, which will open at the end of this month.

However, active NBA players Rui Hachimura (LA Lakers) and Utah Watanabe (Mempsis) watched the game from the bench.

Hachimura and Watanabe were missing, but Japan was expected to be ahead of us in objective power with major players such as Yuki Dogashi and Makoto Hiejima and naturalized player Josh Hawkinson.

In preparation for the Paris Olympics, Japan has maintained a “real-time mode” by playing two warm-up matches against Australia, ranked fifth in the world, last month, while South Korea, which failed to make it to the Olympic finals, spent a break after the 2023-2024 season and was called up only on June 29 to start training.

After the start of the game, Japan took an early 8-0 lead with “Jupo” Hiejima hitting two 3-pointers.

South Korea, which failed to score for about three minutes in the beginning, opened the scoring with Byun Joon-hyung’s three-point shot and finished the first quarter with a relatively tight 13-15.

In the second quarter, Korea, where Lee Jung-hyun (Sono)’s three-point game was on fire, took the lead in the game and ended the first half with a 46-35 margin.

Japan led 6-5 in the number of 3-pointers until the first half, but South Korea was 50% and Japan 30% in success rate.

In particular, South Korea led 26-17 in rebounds in the first and second quarters, and we overwhelmed Japan in terms of the content of the game, leading 14-6.

In the third quarter, Korea continued to lead by more than 10 points, but at the end of the quarter, Oh Jae-hyun (SK) and Ha Yoon-ki (kt) scored consecutive putbacks to widen the gap to 20 points.

The Japanese team was fiercely chasing in the fourth quarter. With about four minutes to go, Akira Jacobs’ two three-pointers exploded in succession, keeping up with the Korean team until 74-80, putting pressure on the Korean team.

In addition, three minutes and 41 seconds before the end, Yuki Kawamura’s 3-pointer was added to catch up 77-80, and Hawkinson’s breakthrough under the goal made it a one-point gap with about three minutes left.

Japan, one point behind, made one of Kawamura’s two free throws due to Oh Jae-hyun’s foul with 48.5 seconds left in the end, and in the ensuing attack, South Korea failed to cross the half-line within eight seconds, giving Japan the right to attack again.

Kawamura got two free throws again with 36 seconds left, all of which were successful this time, and Japan took a two-point lead.

South Korea tied the game 84-84 with Lee Jung-hyun’s side mid-range shot with 14 seconds left before the end.

With 0.9 seconds left in the end, Ha Yoon-ki drew Hawkinson’s foul in the rebound process to get two free throws, and Ha Yoon-ki intentionally missed the second pitch after scoring one pitch to secure a dramatic one-point victory.

Lee Jung-hyun was active with 27 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists, including 6 3-pointers, while Ha Yoon-ki, the main character of the winning point, recorded 15 points and 7 rebounds.

Kawamura (23 points) and Hawkinson (17 points) worked hard in Japan.