Acting head coach Kang Hyuk earns his first win as head coach thanks to Andrew Nicholson’s game-winning three-pointer.
Daegu KOGAS earned its first win of the season on Monday, defeating Seoul SK 96-94 in its 2023-2024 regular season home game at Daegu Gymnasium.
It was a dramatic win. Trailing 91-94 with one minute and one second left in regulation, GAS cut the deficit to one point with a basket by Lee Dae-heon after an offensive rebound, and then won the game with a final three-pointer by Nicholson with 2.2 seconds left.
Playing in front of 1,524 home fans, GASCO acting head coach Kang Hyuk said, “It feels good to get our first win in front of our home fans. Thank you to the players. We could have given up, but we did it to the end.” He gave credit to the players.
Speaking about the final attack, Kang Hyuk said, “I just wanted to connect right away. I thought I would have to leave one more time to operate. That’s what happened. I was worried about two patterns. I left it to Nicholson at the end, and it was a lucky shot. “In one of the patterns, there’s a three-point shot by Nicholson. He said he didn’t care if he shot it, he just wanted you to take care of it.”
The combination of Samjosef Belangel and Junwoo Yang stood out. They combined for 19 points.
Acting head coach Kang Hyuk said, “At first, I went to the one guard and put Chabawi at the two (shooting guard). He was weak at two, so I switched to two guard. Belangel played hard on defense even though his numbers dropped. Yang Jun-woo did a good job on offense. The two-guard works well, so we should try this combination. When Kim Nak-hyun comes back, we’ll have to play two guard.” “Shin Seung-min thankfully played through his injury against Hyundai Mobis and said he was fine. It helped me a lot.”
Despite the win, they gave up more than 90 points for the second straight game.
Acting head coach Kang Hyuk said, “On offense, we’re better than I thought. Nicholson came in and fixed that part,” he said. “We give up too many points on defense. We have meetings with the players and practice. We still need to practice a little bit more. We need to work on our defense to be more solid.”
“We always talk about holding them under 80 points, and if they give up more than that, there’s no team to beat. It’s not that the guys aren’t working hard, but their shots are going in,” he laughed, adding, “We need to work on that more so we can get to the rim.”
It’s the first win of the season, but it’s also the first win for acting head coach Kang Hyuk.
“Thank you to the players. I felt good when the buzzer sounded at the end. It’s my first time, and I feel pretty good because it’s my first 토토사이트 time,” he said, adding, “It’s not so much that I got a win, but that I feel grateful to the players and that the club supported me.”
The GASCO players celebrated their first victory by waiting outside the press conference room and spraying acting coach Kang Hyuk with water as he came out of the interview.