Dongyang 7 Straight Wins

`Nobody can stop me.`

The spirits of the Dongyang Orions are leaping high into the sky. In the 2001-2002 Anycall professional basketball league, the Dongyang defeated the Mobis Automons 96-93 to take the outright leader with 7 wins and 1 loss at Ulsan yesterday. With this win, the Dongyang recorded its 7th consecutive win since the season opening lost to the SK Bigs on 3rd.

Just before starting this game, both teams` point guards Kim Seung-Hyun (Dongyang) and Gang Dong-Hee (Mobis) shook hands wearing a big smile on the court.

Kim Seung-Hyun, a rookie and a core contributor of Dongyang`s gusting victory march, is an Incheon Songdo high school alumnus with Gang Dong-Hee. Kim confessed that he has learned how to manage the game watching over Gang`s play.

A four-time assist title winner, Gang encouraged a 12 year-younger player Kim clapping on his back with a warm heart.

However, the game is a different matter. As the game began, Kim and Gang have tightly pressed each other watching for each other`s unguarded moment.

Until the third quarter, Kim has been superior to Gang. While elder Gang was out for save his power, Kim has widened the lead helping Marcus Hicks and Ryan Perryman get the points.

Kim Seung-Hyun assisted on two fabulous alley-oop passes to Hicks to draw the applause from away fans.

But veteran player Gang Dong-Hee`s counterattack was not easy to handle at all. When the third quarter ended, the Dongyang kept a 71-60 lead. In the fourth quarter, as Gang`s penetrating passes were connected to Dillon Turner and Larry Abney, the Mobis made a 75-75 tie with 4 minutes 55 seconds left. But Gang alone could not stop the rising Dongyang.

The Dongyang maintained the victory on Hicks`s 47 points and rarely-known Park Jae-Il`s three-point shot.

Meanwhile, in the game between the SK Bigs and the Sambo Xers, Johnny McDowell broke through a 5,000 point landmark for the first time in the Korean professional basketball league to lead his team`s victory at Bucheon. The SK Bigs ranked the outright second place with 6 wins and 2 losses. McDowell broke through the 5,000 points (total 5,004 points) in the paint zone with 4 minutes and 51 seconds left, and recorded 30 points, 15 rebounds and 9 assists, one assist short of the triple double.

jeon@donga.com