Busan KCC Egis crowned KBL champions, beating Sonicboom 4-1

Busan KCC Egis beat Suwon KT Sonicboom 88-70 in the fifth game of the 2023-24 KBL Championship on Sunday to win the best-of-seven series 4-1, becoming the first team to claim the championship title after finishing the regular season in fifth place.

Busan KCC Egis players celebrate winning the 2023-24 KBL Championship after beating Suwon KT Sonicboom 88-70 in the fifth game of the best-of-seven series at Suwon KT Sonicboom Arena in Suwon, Gyeonggi on Sunday. [YONHAP]

Busan KCC Egis beat Suwon KT Sonicboom 88-70 in the fifth game of the 2023-24 KBL Championship on Sunday to win the best-of-seven series 4-1, becoming the first team to claim the championship title after finishing the regular season in fifth place.

It was a do-or-die game for Sonicboom at Suwon KT Sonicboom Arena in Suwon, Gyeonggi.

Sonicboom were off to a good start, grabbing the first quarter 21-16, but Egis quickly bounced back from the second quarter and took the score to 40-36.

The Busan side extended the points gap and made it 65-49 by the third quarter, before taking the score to 88-70 to seal the victory and their sixth championship title.

Egis not only became the first team to win the championship after finishing the regular season in fifth place, but they had already become the first team to reach the series as a fifth-place team.

This year’s title contest was a clash between the popular Heo brothers — Heo Ung of Egis and Heo Hoon of Sonicboom — who are the two sons of KBL legend Hur Jae. Hur's sons choose to spell their last names differently.

Heo Hoon was the top scorer of the game with 29 points, but it still fell short of the attack led by Heo Ung, who scored 21 points — coupled with 20 points by Ra Gun-ah.

Heo Ung, who averaged 18.8 points over the five championship games, was named the championship MVP. His father Hur was also the MVP of the 1997-98 championship.

Busan KCC Egis's Heo Ung celebrates winning the 2023-24 KBL Championship after cutting down the net. [YONHAP]

“I was keen to win as I had never won before,” Heo said after Sunday’s game. “I wanted to win so bad that I even prayed before I went to bed.

“I always watched the championship on TV, and I really wanted to be there. I cried because I was so happy to see all my efforts and moments I dreamt of become a reality.”

This year’s championship victory is Egis’s first since the 2010-11 season. The Busan side’s victory came despite an inconsistent performance during the first half of the regular campaign, when they at one point slipped down to eighth place on the 10-team table.

But Egis displayed a solid performance like they did in the preseason — during which they won the KBL Cup for the first time — in the second half of the regular season, managing fifth place to book a ticket to the first playoff series.

In the KBL, the top six teams compete in the playoffs after the regular campaign, with the third-place team facing off against the sixth-place team and the fourth-place team facing the fifth-place team. The third-versus-sixth-place winner advances to the second playoff series to face the league runners-up, while either the fourth- or fifth-place team plays the league winners.

Egis beat fourth-place Seoul SK Knights in the first playoff series and went on to defeat league champions Wonju DB Promy, who won the league with a wire-to-wire run, in the second playoff series.

Last season’s league and championship winners Anyang KGC — now called Anyang Jung Kwan Jang Red Boosters — meanwhile, did not even make it to the first playoffs this year after managing a ninth-place finish in the league.

Egis’s championship victory comes after the team moved from Jeonju, North Jeolla to Busan last year. The team, formerly known as Jeonju KCC Egis, was renamed Busan KCC Egis following their move to Busan last summer.

The Egis started as the Hyundai Basketball Team in 1977 and became the Daejeon Hyundai Dynat in 1997, and later the Daejeon Hyundai Gullivers in 1999. They left Daejeon in 2001 to move to Jeonju where they stayed for 22 years until moving again to Busan last year.

Since the KBL began in 1997, the club has won five league and six championship titles.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]