SEOUL (Paul Nilsen's Women's Basketball Worldwide) - For a culture not renowned for public outpouring of emotion and expression, the shackles were well and truly thrown off in the Women's Korean Basketball League (WKBL) a couple of days ago.

There were scenes of sheer jubilation on the final buzzer from underdogs KB Stars, who jumped out on favourites and regular season force Woorie Hansae to take a 1-0 series lead in the WKBL Finals.

There were some particularly great scenes and photos of Shekinna Stricklen getting mobbed by some of her team-mates and boy did she deserve it.

The forward exploded for a monumental 38 points and 16 rebounds, securing her tally from an excellent 54 percent floor shooting and continuing on from the stellar efforts which catapulted her team into the Finals.

KB Stars had been expected to miss out, but they memorably edged out the S-Birds to make the Finals - thanks mainly to the headline work of Stricklen.

However, their thrilling 65-62 decider in the Semi-Finals was also largely due to a nice contribution from Aran Hong.

One of the players who stepped out at the FIBA World Championship for Women last year with the very inexperienced Korea national team, Hong was one of the few players to shoot the ball well for her country in Turkey and seems to have benefited from the experience.

KB Stars rely heavily on Stricklen as most teams do when it comes to their respective 'foreign' player, as well as veteran Korean star Yeon Ha Beon. But with the latter now 35-years-old, it is vitally important the likes of Hong start to rise to the fore when it comes to showtime in the WKBL and also in international competition.

It looks like being a thrilling WKBL Finals series after Woorie Hansae showed why they were the dominant team during the regular season by hitting back with an 81-73 success to square things up.

Charde Houston produced a standout 38 points and just missed out on a double-double by one rebound for the victorious team which sets up the next contest beautifully.

While common sense, recent history and their respective track records might all point to Woori Hansae pushing on and now finishing the job, we have seen so many times how a team with momentum heading into the Finals end up prevailing.

Even after this setback, KB Stars still have momentum and can of course play with more freedom (not being the favourites), so they really can't be ruled out.

Meanwhile, once the silverware has been determined, there may need to be a review of the WKBL and how it continues to impact on the precarious situation which Korean women's basketball finds itself in due to a very limited pool of active players.

It is the kind of tricky balance which fellow Asian countries such as China are trying to get to grips with in terms of the WCBA and how many import players it allows and so forth.

The situation in Korea however is even more sensitive as previous columns I have written in the past like this have explained, therefore any re-calibration of the domestic league must be carefully constructed.

For now though, I am just enjoying watching who rides to the top of the WKBL podium and whether the KB Stars can pull off a glorious surprise triumph.

Paul Nilsen

FIBA

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