MANILA – Justin Gutang was limited offensively but it hardly mattered. Changwon LG Sakers cruised to a 94-84 victory over Seoul SK Knights in the 2022-2023 Korean Basketball League on Monday at the Jamsil Student Gymnasium.
The former College of St. Benilde Blazers star played just five minutes and finished with four points, on 2-of-4 field goal shooting, to go with five assists as the LG Sakers improved to 27-14.
Assem Marei led the way for the winning LG Sakers with double-double 24 points and 20 rebounds, Kwanhee Lee added 20 markers, while Jaedo Lee and Jung Hee-jae had 16 and 12, respectively.
Jameel Warmey finished with double-double 37 points and 14 rebounds, while Seonhyung Kim and Bukyung Choi added 17 and 12 markers, respectively, as the defending champions Knights dropped to 23-17.
Gutang and the LG Sakers look to build on this win as they face Rhenz Abando and league-leading Anyang KGC Ginseng Corporation on Wednesday night at the Anyang Indoor Stadium.
Ethan Alvano and Wonju DB Promy, meanwhile, were not as fortunate as they suffered a close 83-77 defeat to cellar dwelling Seoul Samsung Thunders at the Jamsil Indoor Stadium.
The Samsung Thunders were up by double-digits for most part of the game before the Promy made a huge run in the fourth to cut the deficit to three but timely hits by the Thunders sealed the upset win for them.
Darral Willis top-scored with 18 points, Junghyun Lee added 15 markers, Anthony Moss had double-double 13 points and 18 rebounds as Donghyuk Shin and Hohyun Lee had 13 and 11, respectively, as the Thunders improved to 12-28.
Alvano, meanwhile, was limited offensively with six points, on 2-of-11 field goal shooting, with five rebounds and five assists in almost 33 minutes for the Promy, which dropped to 16-24.
Jongkyu Kim top-scored for Wonju with 24 points, while Seungwook Choi and Jeong Ho-young contributed 15 and 13 markers, respectively./PN
