Lee Jung-hyun scored 34 points and dished out 12 assists to lead the Goyang Sono to their first-ever regular season victory over the Ulsan Hyundai Mobis.
The Sono defeated the Hyundai Mobis 99-88 in a home game of the 2023-2024 regular season at Goyang Gymnasium in Gyeonggi Province on Monday.
This is the first regular season victory for Sono in its history.
The Sono Skygunners were created by Sono International after the Goyang Day One was suspended last season for unpaid wages.
Sono took over the existing squad and threw down the gauntlet of professional basketball under head coach Kim Seung-ki, but they were unable to smile for a while as they lost three straight games on the opening day.
Ace Lee Jung-hyun led the way for Sono in their monumental win over the Hyundai Mobis, who had won three straight.
Lee led the Sono offense with 34 points and 12 assists in 37 minutes.
He made all seven of his three-point attempts, and he was also a precise shooter, hitting 9-of-10 free throws.
He exploded for 11 points and five assists in the fourth quarter alone. After starting the fourth quarter with a five-point lead, SONO went on a 13-point run with just over two minutes left in the game behind Lee’s big night.
Diyonte Davis added 23 points to pace SONO against the Hyundai Mobis big men. Josh Toralba and Sung-hyun Jeon added 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Hyundai Mobis got 21 points and 12 rebounds from Gage Prim and 19 points from Lee Woo-seok, but they were unable to overcome Sono’s performance.
To add insult to injury, Signe Jin left the court with a knee injury, and the offense struggled to find its groove as the game wound down.
Andrew Nicholson’s thrilling come-from-behind three-pointer with two seconds left in regulation gave Daegu KOGAS its first win of the season, beating Seoul SK 96-94 at home.
After dropping two games to open the season, KOGAS used Nicholson’s heroics to bounce back against SK.
Meanwhile, SK, which had won three straight, suffered its first back-to-back losses of the season.
Nicholson, who officially joined the team on Nov. 27 after the opening day, also played for KOGAS in the 2021-2022 season.
After making his comeback with 31 points and 10 rebounds in an 83-92 loss to Changwon LG Electronics on Nov. 28, Nicholson exploded for 37 points in a dramatic victory.
Down 93-94 with 19 seconds left in regulation, Nicholson grabbed a rebound and drained a game-winning three-pointer over Leon Williams with two seconds left in regulation.
Nicholson, who shot 5-of-5 from 3-point range, including the game-winner, was also 7-of-11 from 2-point range. He also made all eight of his free throws.
Last season’s regular season Most Valuable Player (MVP) Kim Sun-hyung exploded for 27 points and eight assists for SK, which was without leading scorer Jamil Warney.
LG defeated Seoul Samsung 90-69 on the road.
After dropping three games to start the new season, LG bounced back with two straight wins like the team that finished second in the regular season last season.
On the other hand, Samsung, which defeated Sono by 20 points on the 27th, was unable to continue its momentum and suffered its second loss of the season (1 win).
The game drew attention from fans for the matchup between Samsung’s center Kofi Coburn, who is the largest player in professional basketball at 210 centimeters, and LG’s big man Asem Marei.
However, LG head coach Cho Sang-hyun chose to play Dante Cunningham, who is more of a forward, instead of Maray, to exploit Coburn’s weakness of being slow on his feet.
Coburn had 15 points and 11 rebounds, but he was clumsy on screens and had little synergy with the guards.
He also struggled to defend the opponent’s two-on-two offense, allowing 20 points to Cunningham, whose strengths are mid-range shooting and penetration.
LG’s Filipino player Justin Gutang, who joined the team under the Asian quota system, also scored 19 points with his trademark momentum and penetration. Lee Jae-do added 18 points from the perimeter.
For Samsung, rookie Jo Jun-hee, a surprise selection at No. 4 overall, scored 10 points, including two 3-pointers, but the lack of domestic players was painful. 슬롯