Samsung Life Insurance has to fill the void of Kiana.
Yongin Samsung Life Insurance lost 47-52 to Bucheon Hana Bank in the regular league of the women's professional basketball from 2024 to 2025 at Yongin Indoor Stadium on Sunday. Due to the loss, the team lost for two consecutive games.
Samsung Life Insurance has been selected as a strong contender for this season's championship. Unlike other teams, Samsung can combine players with existing ones. Key players were Kiana Smith (178cm, G) and Bae Hye-yoon (182cm, C).
In fact, Samsung Life Insurance cruised smoothly. In the meantime, the team continued to compete with top teams. However, the team lost in a showdown with Asan Woori Bank in the fifth round. It was a disappointing setback. To make matters worse, Kiana, who had been active this season, even suffered a shoulder injury.
Kiana has 13 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.1 assists on average this season. She became the best shooter in the league with a success rate of 37 percent of three-point shooting. Such a gap between Kiana and Samsung has been the biggest homework for her.
"Hye-yoon and I account for a lot of our team's offense," said Ha Sang-yoon, head coach of Samsung Life Insurance, who is set to face off against Hana Bank. "There are many things that are derived from that. There is no Kiana. It is said that she will be out for about three weeks."
"I emphasized defense yesterday or this morning. You have to stiffen your opponent by pressing from the top. Today, you will press from a high position. Of course, you cannot press from a very high position due to team circumstances. However, (I) Hae-ran will stick from the top. (Kim) Ah-reum and (Kang) Yu-rim will press even beyond the half-court. Then you can go to the trap," he said, stressing defense.
In fact, Samsung Life Insurance put pressure on the team from a high position on the day. It hindered the opponent team's attack in the first quarter. He then posted six steals. After succeeding in the steal, he made easy runs through fast attacks. He had difficulties facing set offensives. Nevertheless, he made up for it by scoring fastballs after succeeding in the steal. With aggressive defense at the forefront, Samsung Life took the lead 19-15. 메이저놀이터
Samsung Life Insurance's set offensives were still not smooth in the second quarter. It only scored four points in the first five minutes of the quarter. In addition, errors were made during the course of the offense. He made three mistakes and allowed the team to come from behind. Afterwards, he failed to score points easily. Bae gained the upper hand thanks to her hard work, but failed to clearly widen the gap. She displayed somewhat disappointing offense.
In the third quarter, Samsung Life had only 11 points in total. Nonetheless, the team tied the opponent to 10 points by banking on its strong defense. Samsung Life Insurance continued its close game with difficulties.
Samsung faced the fourth quarter with a score of 42-39. The fourth quarter was important to win. However, Kiana's gap at the final destination was too big. Bae's attack burden was too big. Bae Hye-yoon aggressively tried to post-up. However, Jinan (182cm, C) and Yang In-young (184cm, C) endured it by force. In addition, there was no clear attack route other than Bae. As a result, they allowed 2-10 runs. Afterwards, they failed to change the flow of the game and lost the game.
Samsung had only five points in the fourth quarter. Only one of Bae's five shots was cut through the rim. The bigger problem is that there was no other clear scorer than Bae. Against this backdrop, Samsung Life Insurance coach Ha Sang-yoon said, "We need to prepare by considering the situation more without Keana." Samsung Life Insurance, which was competing for the title, faced a big crisis at the end of the season. Samsung Life Insurance has to overcome this in order to go higher.