Posted July. 18, 2002 22:22,
A Korean female basketball player gave such an enduring impression to Chinese and Japanese coaches that they often ask how she is doing whenever they visit Korea. She is Byun Yeon-ha, a small forward who has been playing for Samsung Life Bitsumi for 4 years.
It was September 1998 when she scored one three-point shot after another during the Asian Youth Basketball Championship held in Dokushima, Japan. The third-grade high-school student shocked everyone with her outstanding performance she topped the three-point ranking, scored most goals and was named as one of the best five players, all the while making her first international debut.
Since then, she has been identified with Korean womens basketball within the Asian basketball circle. And Byun proved yet again that she is the best of the class at a match against Keumho Life Falcons during the 2002 professional womens basketball league sponsored by Kookmin Bank.
At the match held in Suwon Stadium on July 18, she led the teams 55-49 victory scoring 24 points including three three-point shots. With five wins two losses, Bitsumi is now leading the league along with Hyundai Hyperions.
It was the fourth quarter when Byun started to dominate the court. Bitsumi was leading the game by 55 to 49, but it was still too close. Then Byun made a mid-range shot, which was soon followed by a three-point shot from the right end.
With Byun alone scoring 7 points for a minute, Samsung Life widened the gap by 13 points to 62 to 49. With only 2 minutes left before the closing buzzer, she made another three-point shot from the middle dealing a final blow to Keumho Life which was closing in on. Keumho was not able to narrow the gap further than 70 to 62.
Byun scored 14 points in the critical fourth quarter alone. Another small forward Park Jung-eun also made a significant contribution to the teams victory adding 24 points including 4 in the fourth quarter.
Although Keumho pressed hard with two mercenaries at the forefront, players were seemingly exhausted from earlier consecutive matches. They made 20 errors during the game, succumbing to the opponents who made 9 errors.