Basketball World Cup: the Belgian Cats deliver a convincing victory against South Korea

The Belgian basketball players beat South Korea 84-61 in their second World Cup group match in Sydney, Australia on Friday. At halftime, Belgium led 50-30.

After the 87-72 defeat against the USA, the favorites, the Belgian Cats had to take the spoils against the South Koreans, who were beaten by China 44-107 on the first day of play. quarter, the team of national coach Valéry Demory immediately imposed its will: 26-12. The lead was already 20 points at halftime.

South Korea, in Australia without star Park Ji-su, managed to keep pace in the third quarter (19-20). Demory has given rest to certain strongholds. In the end, the Cats ran further at 84-61.

In Group A, the Cats will face Puerto Rico on Saturday (12:30 a.m.), Monday (3:30 a.m.) against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Tuesday (5:30 a.m.) against China.

In 2018, in their first appearance in the World Cup, the Cats finished in a good fourth place in Tenerife.

“The plan was to win this match relatively easily. And I didn’t want the main players to play more than 25 minutes. We succeeded,” national coach Valery Demory said after the win.

“South Korea are a special team, they play a lot on the outside and have small players. But my team did well offensively,” Demory said. The Frenchman really wants to shoot in the World Cup. Friday, Julie Allemand (26h37) and Antonia Delaere (26h26) were the longest on the floor. Everyone in the Belgian team had minutes, so by half-time the Belgians already had a reassuring 50-30 lead.

The Cats are now one win in two games, after losing 87-72 to favorite USA. ‘We feel good. We knew a win against USA yesterday would be tough. But we showed we could handle their level,” said Julie Vanloo, who shot 14 points in the basket against South Korea. Only Hind Ben Abdelkader did better with 17 points. “We absolutely want to move on to the next round, that’s our goal. Now we focus on tomorrow’s game against Puerto Rico. This match is very important,” concluded Vanloo.