SEOUL (FIBA World Championship for Women) - Korea will arrive at the FIBA World Championship for Women in Istanbul with a young roster and are trying to counteract this potential difficulty by engaging in an extensive preparation schedule in order to get more experience under their belts.

One of the most important planks of their preparation programme was participation at the 36th edition of the annual William Jones Cup which was held in Chinese Taipei recently.

Korea took their chance to play five games during an intense competition which, while harvesting mixed results, did still highlight some positives for head coach Kim Young Joo.

While his team opened up with a 63-52 loss to WJBL club side Denso Iris and were also defeated 67-57 by eventual champions Canada B, they also claimed a trio of triumphs after beating the Chinese Tapiei A and B teams, as well as 'Savage USA'.

As expected, Korea were led by their phenomenal 15-year-old center Ji Su Park, who collected 13.2 points and 8.6 rebounds per game during the competition to reiterate her mesmerising and still immeasurable potential.

While she anchored the team in the paint, there was a real renaissance shown from guard Youn Joo Kim, who has been recalled after last featuring at the FIBA Asia Championship for Women three years ago.

The versatile 28-year-old enjoyed a very impressive tournament and managed to accrue an all-action haul of 12.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. Not only did she finish as the second top scorer behind Park, but she played more minutes than anyone else and showed the kind of leadership that the team so desperately needs when they arrive in Turkey.

There was also some really nice perimeter shooting from A Ran Hong who just missed out on averaging double digits in scoring with 9.8 points per game, having impressively sunk half of her shots from long-distance.

Korea will also compete in the Karlovy Vary tournament this week where they will face the Czech Republic, Canada and Serbia.

FIBA