Busan BNK finish second at 2023 William Jones Cup

WKBL team Busan BNK Sum pose with their silver medals after finishing second at the 2023 William Jones Cup in Taipei, Taiwan on Wednesday. [WILLIAM JONES CUP]

WKBL team Busan BNK Sum beat the Taiwanese women’s national team 93-76 at Taipei Heping Basketball Gymnasium in Taipei, Taiwan on Wednesday, finishing the 2023 William Jones Cup as runners-up with four wins and one loss.

BNK represented Korea in the women’s event of the Jones Cup, running from Saturday last week through Wednesday. The tournament brings together six countries, represented either by their national team or a professional club.

The competition took place with a round-robin format and BNK needed to win Wednesday’s game to finish the tournament as runners-up, as Japanese team Chanson V-Magic had already won the event after a win against the Filipino national team earlier in the day.

BNK dominated the game thanks to Lee So-hee’s remarkable performance, scoring 31 points alone. Han Eom-ji and Jin An also shone, managing 15 and 14 points respectively, to help the team secure their fourth win and finish the tournament in second place.

Lee was named as one of the best five players of the tournament after scoring 18.2 points average during the event.

“It is good that we ended the last game well,” Lee said after Wednesday’s game. “If we could get a chance to compete in the Jones Cup again, I will look to win it.”

Lee also showed outstanding form during the 2022-23 season with BNK, finishing as the third top scorer with 16.87 points average to reach the championship with the team, where they finished as runners-up.

The women’s event ended, but the men’s event will run from Saturday through Aug. 20, also in Taiwan.

Nine teams will compete in the men’s event, with last season’s KBL champions Anyang KGC representing Korea.

KGC are the first KBL team to compete in the Jones Cup since Ulsan Hyundai Mobis Phoebus in 2014, who won the tournament that year.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]