(Asiad) Coach hopes women's hoops gold will inspire new generation of players

NAGOYA, Japan, Sept. 26 (Yonhap) -- After coaching South Korea to the women's basketball title at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday in central Japan, Park Soo-ho said he hopes the gold medal will be a watershed moment for the sport.

South Korea defeated Japan 75-70 in the gold medal contest at Aichi International Arena in Nagoya for the country's first women's basketball gold since 2014.

"I don't know if a day like this will ever come again, and I will cherish it for a long time," Park said afterward. "My players deserve all the credit in the world. I am so thankful for them."

Park's team was shorthanded. He carried 11 players, one below the maximum, as the national federation chose not to name a replacement for the injured center Park Ji-su. Another star player, guard Park Ji-hyun, was not able to travel to Japan due to her commitments to the Los Angeles Sparks in the Women's National Basketball Association.

Those two players perhaps would have made life easier for South Korea down the stretch in the final, as the team nearly blew a 20-point lead and needed some clutch late free throws to clinch the gold medal. While a player or two can have an oversize impact on a team in basketball, the fact that the absence of these two players continued to hover over South Korea throughout the tournament illustrates the inherent lack of depth for the national team program.

"We have a really youthful and inexperienced pool in women's basketball," Park said. "To have veteran players lead the way to the gold medal, I think this will inspire young players and hopefully expand our talent base."

As for missing the two unrelated Parks at the Asian Games, the coach said: "I think we proved here that even with our shallow roster depth, we can still produce great results when the players that are around put in the work and chase the same goal. I think some of the players here realized that themselves."