After falling in love with basketball, Lee Seo-joon’s goal these days is to become an elite player.
In the U11 Group D preliminary round of the Asian Youth Basketball Championship at the Chungju Gymnasium, the Korean team Gangnam Samsung lost a close game to 바카라사이트 Chinese Taipei Ballin.
Chinese Taipei Ballin is one of the most explosive offenses in the tournament. The U12 Ballin team scored 91 points in a single game, playing offensive basketball. The U11 team was not much different. They played tight defense and scored in transition with fast breaks to score in bunches.
Gangnam Samsung needed to shut down Ballin’s offense if they wanted to face a win. In the first half, they did just that. They didn’t score themselves, but they were evenly matched, holding their opponents to less than half of their field goal attempts.
In between, Gangnam Samsung‘s Lee Seo-joon stood out.
With good size for his age and quickness for his height, Lee was able to move well on both sides of the ball. In a game with seven minutes per quarter and four quarters in total, Lee played nearly full time and didn’t seem to struggle.
He used his height to dominate possessions and offensive rebounds to score putbacks. The bench even ordered patterns that utilized Lee, trying to capitalize on his offensive skills.
Lee rewarded the bench and pushed the team to victory, but his efforts were not enough to win the game.
After the game, Lee said, “Everyone played hard. But I feel bad about the mistakes I made,” he said, apologizing to his teammates.
He also said, “I missed some layups and baskets. We didn’t set up quickly enough when we ran fast breaks, and our defense was lacking overall,” he said.
Throughout the game, the Gangnam Samsung bench praised the players for their organized team defense.
“Coach told us to defend the paint zone and box out first,” said Lee Seo-joon, “and the experience of playing against my older brothers, who are very talented sixth graders, helped us a lot today.
At 13 years old and in the sixth grade, Lee is just getting started in basketball. He has only been playing basketball for one year and four months. He has a short history. What attracted him to the sport?
“First and foremost, I love the feeling of exhilaration when a shot goes in. Also, I can’t describe the feeling when I run hard and make a successful defense,” he said.