Busan KCC become first fifth-place team to reach KBL championship

Basketball

Published: 22 Apr. 2024, 14:04 Updated: 22 Apr. 2024, 17:58

Busan KCC become first fifth-place team to reach KBL championship

Busan KCC Egis players celebrate after winning a 2023-24 KBL playoff game against Wonju DB Promy at Sajik Gymnasium in Busan on Sunday. [NEWS1]

Busan KCC Egis beat 2023-24 KBL champions Wonju DB Promy 80-63 in the fourth game of the best-of-five second-round playoffs at home on Sunday, becoming the first team to reach the championship after finishing the regular season in fifth place.

Egis won the second-round playoffs 3-1 with Sunday’s victory thanks to a remarkable performance by Ra Gun-ah, who scored 17 points as the top scorer of the game, in addition to 14 points apiece by Heo Ung and Song Kyo-chang.

The victory against the Wonju side, who claimed the league title with a wire-to-wire run, sent Egis to the best-of-seven championship where they'll face the winner of the playoffs between the Changwon LG Sakers and Suwon KT Sonicboom.

This marks the first time a fifth-placed team has reached the championship since the KBL began in 1997. It will be Egis’s first championship since the 2020-21 season when they won the league and finished as championship runners-up.

Egis displayed an inconsistent performance during the regular season despite winning the preseason KBL Cup for the first time. The Busan side finished in fifth place on the 10-team table.

Egis, however, still displayed a convincing performance against fourth-placed Seoul SK Knights in the first playoff round, winning the best-of-five series 3-0.

In the KBL, the top six teams compete in the playoffs after the regular season, with the third-place team facing off against the sixth-place team and the fourth-place team facing the fifth-place team. The third-versus-sixth-place winner advances to the second playoff series to face the league runners-up, while either the fourth- or fifth-place team plays the league winners.

“The players and I have big egos, so I thought we were going to do well in the playoffs,” Egis head coach Jeon Chang-jin said according to the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, after the game.

A championship victory for Egis would be their first since the 2010-11 season. The Busan side has won the league and championship titles five times apiece.

The fourth playoff game between the Sakers and Sonicboom was due to take place in the evening on Monday as of press time. The Sakers will reach the championship if they win that game.

Last season’s league and championship winners Anyang KGC — now called Anyang Jung Kwan Jang Red Boosters — meanwhile, did not even make it to the first playoffs this year after managing a ninth-place finish in the league.

Last season’s championship runners-up Knights also failed to win any silverware again this year, crashing out of the first playoffs and finishing as runners-up at the East Asia Super League, an international competition among eight teams across Asia.

The 2023-24 championship series will begin Saturday, with the schedule running through May 9 at the latest.

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