Women's basketball team reach semifinals as men punch ticket to quarterfinals
Published: 02 Oct. 2023, 23:26
![South Korea's Kang Lee-seul, left, cheers after scoring during a group stage game against North Korea at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Friday. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2023/10/02/edebd2bd-451f-4aed-ae64-0ce32fbf3a21.jpg)
South Korea's Kang Lee-seul, left, cheers after scoring during a group stage game against North Korea at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Friday. [NEWS1]
Both the Korean women’s and men’s basketball teams defeated their opponents in elimination rounds on Monday, advancing to the next stage of the competition at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The Korean women’s basketball team defeated the Philippines 93-71 in the quarterfinal match, securing a chance to reach the gold-medal game.
The women’s team is so far undefeated at this year’s Asiad, winning their fourth-consecutive game on Monday at the Shaoxing Olympic Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China. The top scorers of the night were Park Ji-su and Kang Lee-seul, bucketing 15 points each.
At the 2018 Asiad in Jakarta, Indonesia, a Korean unified team competed in the women’s basketball tournament and took silver, losing to China in the final round. The women’s team will next face Japan, 2018 bronze-medalists, in the semifinal match on Tuesday at 8 p.m. local time, 9 p.m. in Korea.
The men’s team defeated Bahrain 88-73 in the quarterfinal qualifier on Monday at the same time, playing their game at the Zhejiang University Zijingang Gymnasium across the river.
The Korean men’s basketball team earlier lost to Japan in the third and final group stage game, competing against Bahrain in a knockout round for a spot in the quarterfinals. Ha Yun-gi was the top scorer, with 16 points.
After a fairly one-sided game, Bahrain fought back in the fourth quarter but fell short of seriously threatening Korea's lead. With about 15 seconds left until the buzzer and Korea the clear winner, the players put the ball down and started shaking hands.
The men’s team finished third at the 2018 Games, losing to Iran in the semifinals but beating Chinese Taipei in the bronze-medal match.
This year, Korea next faces defending champions China in the men’s quarterfinals on Tuesday at noon local time, 1 p.m. in Korea.
BY MARY YANG AND JIM BULLEY [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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