By Jung Min-ho

Korea women’s national basketball team failed to win an Olympic ticket for the first time since 1996 after a crushing defeat by Japan 51-79 in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday.

Getting off to a disastrous start by falling behind 4-29 in the first quarter, Korea struggled to catch up with Japan’s dominant lead and wrapped up the first half with 20-47. After completely losing its fighting spirit over the hopeless gap in the score, the 2010 Asian games silver medalists failed to shift the abject atmosphere and lost the last opportunity to compete in the upcoming London Olympics.

The shocking loss against its rival calls the future of Korea women’s basketball into question. As Korea did not lose against Japan in the past five games, the team’s dismal performance as well as the lack of fighting spirit this time disappointed the fans deeply.

The offense pattern was monotonous and there wasn’t any brilliant strategy that could turn the game around. As the match got harder, Korea concentrated the ball on center Shin Jung-ja and forward Beon Yoen-ha and Japan saw through the meager strategy. Pressured by time, the world’s No. 9 team impatiently kept throwing three-pointers, widening the score gap against them even more. The former basketball super star and the current SBS ESPN basketball commentator Jung Sun-min expressed her mixed feelings over Korea’s poor performance in the third quarter by saying “I have never before seen the Japan team smiling so brightly during games against Korea.”

Despite the fact that the center Ha Eun-joo has long suffered from injuries throughout the Olympic qualifying games and some key players like Jung Sun-min and Jeon Ju-won recently retired from the court, Korea apparently underperformed on speed, techniques, team-play and spirit, leaving a big question mark on the team’s leadership, Lee Ho-keun.

With the loss, the controversy in April over appointing Samsung Life’s manager Lee as the Olympic national team’s manager over last season’s winner Shinhan Bank S-Birds’ manager Lim Dal-shik is expected to resurface in the Women’s Korean Basketball League (WKBL). Moreover, more issues concerning WKBL, which is already suffering from the Shinsegae Coolcat’s surprising break-up this April, are expected to aggravate the situation.