Beat Hana Card 4-3 in sets; lead standings with 20 points
Kang Dong-gung earns second MVP of the season
Huons claimed its second round title of the season Sunday, winning the Professional Billiards Association Team League's Round 4 after having already taken Round 2.
At the Kintex PBA Stadium in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, Huons defeated Hana Card 4-3 in sets on the final day of Round 4 of the Welcome Savings Bank PBA Team League 2026-2027. The victory lifted Huons to a 7-2 record with 20 points, edging out NH NongHyup Card (6-3, 19 points) and Crown Haitai (6-3, 17 points) to clinch the round title.
Huons had led the standings heading into Sunday's finale but faced a fierce challenge from Hana Card. The team took the first set 11-3 through Kang Dong-gung and Robinson Morales of Colombia, only to drop the second and level the score at 1-1. In the third set, Kang trailed Nguyen Quoc Nguyen of Vietnam 3-5 going into the sixth inning before firing a high run of 12 to win 15-5.
Huons then surrendered the fourth set to level the match at 2-2. The fifth set went to Huons when Ngo Dinh Nai of Vietnam blanked Murat Naci Coklu of Turkey 11-0, leaving the team one set from the title. But Kim Se-yeon lost the sixth set to Kim Ga-young 2-9, forcing a deciding seventh.
Morales proved to be the closer. Trailing Han Ji-seung 2-4 in the third inning, Morales reeled off a high run of 7 to take the lead, then added the remaining 2 points in the fourth inning to win 11-4 and seal the championship.
Huons, which won Round 2 with a perfect record to claim the franchise's first-ever round title, has now added a second in the same season. Only two teams have previously won two rounds in a single season — NH NongHyup Card in 2023-2024 and SK Rent-a-Car in 2024-2025.
Kang Dong-gung, known by the nickname "Hulk," was named Round 4 MVP. Kang posted a 12-5 overall record — 6-2 in singles and 6-3 in doubles — with an average of 1.860 to lead the team to the title. It was his second MVP award of the season, following his Round 2 honor, and he received prize money of 1 million won ($745).
"As far as I know, no team has ever won three rounds in a single season," Kang said. "Chasing a record no one has set is a huge motivation. We want to live up to our team name, Huons Healthcare Legends, and become true legends."
Team leader Choi Sung-won said he wants to clinch the regular-season top spot quickly and advance directly to the postseason final.
Meanwhile, the PBA will hold the sixth tour event of the 2026-2027 season, the Huons PBA-LPBA Championship, starting Nov. 21.
yjc@heraldcorp.com
