S-Birds beat reigning champion Stars in WKBL opening game

The 2022-23 Women's Korean Basketball League (WKBL) season kicked off on Sunday with the Shinhan Bank S-Birds beating defending champions Cheongju KB Stars 84-77 at home.

Shinhan Bank's Kim Sonia tries a shot against the Cheongju KB Stars on Sunday during their first WKBL match of the season at Dowon Stadium in Incheon. [WKBL]

The 2022-23 Women's Korean Basketball League (WKBL) season kicked off on Sunday with the Shinhan Bank S-Birds beating defending champions Cheongju KB Stars 84-77 at home.

The first match of the season started with a minute's silence in tribute to the victims of the Itaewon disaster a day earlier.

Despite having dominated the 2021-22 WKBL season, the Stars were looking like a different team on Sunday.

Last season, with a total of 23 wins and one loss, the KB Stars secured the top seat in the WKBL with six games still left to play, becoming the first team to win the season title in 24 games since 2008, when the WKBL first combined the winter and summer seasons.

However, the Stars are playing the start of the 2022-23 season without star player Park Ji-su.

Reigning WKBL MVP Park was not in attendance on Sunday, almost three months after she dropped out of national team training due to a panic disorder.

Park, who is the only player active in both the WKBL and the WNBA, reportedly left training with the KB Stars on July and was taken to hospital because she was hyperventilating and showing signs of a panic attack.

On Sunday, her teammates wore wristbands with the No. 19 written on them, Park's jersey number.

Cheongju KB Stars' Kang Lee-seul points to her wrist band with teammate Park Ji-su's name written on it on Sunday before a WKBL match against Shinhan Bank at Dowon Stadium in Incheon. [WKBL]

Without knowing when Park will actually return to the court, veteran and national team regular Kang Lee-seul was expected to lead the team.

Before starting the WKBL season, Kang scored 37 points to lead the national team to Korea’s first FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup win in 12 years in July, breaking the all-time World Cup efficiency record in the process.

Kang had led Korea to a 99-66 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina and the national team's first win of the 2022 World Cup and first victory in a World Cup game since a 68-66 win over Mali in September 2010. Her 37 points was good enough to make her the second-highest scoring Korean in a World Cup game ever.

Cheongju KB Stars' Kang Lee-seul talks to her teammates on Sunday during a WKBL match against Shinhan Bank at Dowon Stadium in Incheon. [WKBL]

As expected, Kang was the highest scorer for the Stars on Sunday, adding 19 points. Of those, 10 came in the third quarter.

After Shinhan took a four-point lead in the first quarter then widened that lead to five points by the end of the second, the Stars gained confidence in the third quarter.

With five minutes left on the clock in the third quarter, the Stars leveled the score at 43-43, then powered through to take an eight point lead by the end of the third quarter with an impeccable three-pointer buzzer beater from Kang.

But that lead fell apart with less than four minutes left on the clock, when taken off following a foul.

The score was 65-59 at the time, but with Kang out of the game, Shinhan quickly added seven points while the Stars only added one.

With the score level at 66-66 after four quarters, the match was pushed into a five-minute overtime period. Two periods of overtime were needed for Shinhan to break through and take an 84-77 lead.

As of press time, Hana OneQ is scheduled to face Samsung Life Blueminx on Monday evening.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]