“I want to win a championship with KCC.”
Busan KCC’s Ragan-ah had a double-double performance with 34 points and 19 rebounds in the first leg of the best-of-five PO (best-of-three) quarterfinals of the 2023-2024 Jeonggwanjang Professional Basketball League at the Wonju General Gymnasium in Gangwon Province on Friday.
Thanks to Ragan’s “one-man show,” KCC, ranked fifth in the regular season, defeated regular-season champion Wonju DB 95-83 to take a 78.8 percent chance of advancing to the championship game.
Lagana played a team-high 34 minutes and 40 seconds on the night.
He was solid under the basket, grabbing rebounds and converting them into putbacks.
He also showed his enthusiasm in the third quarter, when the score was already close to 20 points, by hustling for loose balls.
“I want to win the KCC as well,” Lagana said in the postgame press conference, explaining the reason for his determination.
Lagunia experienced three consecutive championships with the Ulsan Hyundai Mobis from 2012-2013 to 2014-2015, and reached the top of the Hyundai Mobis in the 2018-2019 season.
He wore a KCC jersey from the 2019-2020 season, but hasn’t won a championship ring since.
“I have a lot of PO experience, a lot of championship experience,” Lagana said, “I won a championship with Mobis, but I haven’t won a championship with KCC, so I cared more about each ball.”
After giving it her all on the court, Lagana had to stand for the press conference because of a cramp in her leg.
On the day, Alize DeShawn Johnson suffered a left ankle injury in the first quarter, potentially adding to Lagana’s workload.
“It’s not every day that my minutes increase due to another player leaving the team or an injury,” Lagana said, “so it’s going to be important for me to be physically and mentally prepared for the game.”
He also thanked his teammates for their support.
“My biggest challenge was stopping (DB’s) Ethan Albano, and Calvin Jeffrey Epistola did a great job of stopping him,” Lagana said. “I think if Epistola stops him, we’re going to make it to the championship game.”
“Basketball is a team sport. I help my teammates, and 토토 they help me,” he said, adding, “Our team is playing good defense in the PO, and the players are unselfish, so I don’t think we’ll have any problems.”
As for Choi Jun-yong, who became a free agent ahead of this season and vowed to “bring Laguna back to Ratliff” when he joined KCC, he said, “(Choi) is like a brother. There were many people who said I was old and that I was down from my peak, but I was grateful to hear that.”
Meanwhile, Song Kyo-chang, who scored 22 points, including three three-pointers, said, “We have a lot of good players. No matter who comes in, we can synergize,” he said, referring to the power of the “super team” KCC.
“I want to give meaning to the fact that we won one game in the enemy territory,” Song said, adding, “No matter what the matchup is, we have a lot of good players, so we don’t have much trouble defending the opponent.”
“It doesn’t matter if we won or lost in the regular season,” he said, referring to the fact that they lost to DB 1-5 in the regular season but overwhelmed them with a different performance in the first round of the PO. It hasn’t been long since we played as a complete team, so I don’t want to put any meaning on that.”
KCC head coach Jeon Chang-jin explained his decision to play him alongside Choi Jun-yong, saying, “I think our combination has the advantage of fast offense. If we score easily, the opponent may not be able to find the pace or rhythm of the game,” explaining that they can create a synergistic effect.