Park Ji-su looks good in return to Las Vegas Aces

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Published: 07 Sep. 2021, 13:34 Updated: 05 Oct. 2021, 13:34

Park Ji-su looks good in return to Las Vegas Aces

Park Ji-su is seen in an ad for a Las Vegas Aces game, posted on the WNBA club's official Instagram page. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Las Vegas Aces center Park Ji-su tallied two points and four rebounds in a 92-84 loss to the Chicago Sky at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois on Sunday.

On her fourth match back after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Park stepped in toward the end of the first quarter and minutes into the second quarter, went one-for-two from close range to score two points, also managing four rebounds during her 11 minutes and 25 seconds on the court on Sunday.

This is Park's longest appearance on the court this season. Her first Aces appearance after the Olympics was on Aug. 24, when she played a brief one minute and 45 seconds.

Sunday's loss cut short the Aces' three-match winning streak. With star players Lix Cambage and Dearica Hamby out due to injuries and health protocols, the Aces trailed by as many as 12 in the first half and, despite managing to tie the game twice in the second half, they succumbed 92-84 to Chicago Sky.

With this victory, the Sky landed themselves in third place in the Eastern conference, clinching a playoff berth as the top four teams in the eastern and western conference advance.

Park is one of the few basketball players ever to have concurrent careers in both Korea and the United States. Park was drafted into the WNBA three years ago, at just 19-years-old, becoming the first Korean player to enter the U.S. league in 15 years.

Park played for the Aces in 2018 and 2019, missing out last year due to an injury, and was called back this year.

Park also plays for Cheongju KB Stars in the Women's Korean Basketball League during the WNBA offseason.

Park Ji-su reacts after losing to Serbia 65-61 during a women's preliminary round basketball game at the 2020 Summer Olympics on Aug. 1 in Saitama, Japan. [YONHAP]

This year, Park returned to the Aces after representing Korea at the Tokyo Olympics, where Park played in every match. After playing the preliminaries in group A alongside world No. 3 Spain, No. 4 Canada and No. 8 Serbia, Team Korea failed to advance to the quarterfinals with three losses and no wins.

This year's Games was expected to be a tough outing for the basketball team, who made it to the Olympics for the first time in 13 years. Eleven of the twelve players on the team, including Park, were playing in such a big tournament for their first time.

Just three days after returning back to Korea from the Tokyo Games, Park jetted off to Las Vegas to join her Stateside team. Park will miss out on representing Korea at the FIBA Asian Cup that starts on Sept. 27 in Amman, Jordan because she will still be playing in the WNBA. Korea will first face New Zealand.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]