THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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Moe's Tavern 43, 6 Feet Under 41 |
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Jae Kim (With a Hand from James Tai and Mike Owh) Nails 6FU at the Buzzer | |||||
September 14, 2006 – New York, NY (DL) – Four seasons ago, in a situation much like at the end of last night’s game, Moe’s Tavern (then known as the Moe Syslak Experience Featuring Homer) found themselves holding the ball with only a few ticks on the clock and a chance to win the game. In that game against the Funkytown Ballers, when there was only one DL division, Moe swingman Eugene Kim rifled a would-be game winning pass to a wide – and I mean wide – open Mike Owh under the basket. All the loquacious Owh had to do was lay the ball into the basket from point blank range for a win at the buzzer. Loquaciousness turned to stunned silence for days after Owh inexplicably blew the game winner – a shot he has not ever forgotten. (Maybe he has, but his teammates haven’t.) Last night, Owh – but more Moe than Owh since it wasn’t he who performed the deed, could finally begin to forget that painful memory when they found themselves in the exact same situation with 5.8 seconds left in the 4th of a dead-tie game against 6 Feet Under.
After 6FU’s Joe Yen tried to force a pass into Leighton Kuet (who recently had his own end of game experience) and it was knocked away, Owh picked the ball off and started a break that would lead to this call from courtside announcer Kevin Song-ders: Owh gets the loose ball…he’s running the other way. There’s only 5 seconds left…he passes up to Tai. 4 seconds…Number 21’s at half-court…3 seconds…top of the key…2 seconds…oh, he split 2 defenders…that was sick…1 second…he drops it off! He drops it off! Jae Kim…(as the horn sounds) it’s GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! Moe’s wins the pennant! Moe’s wins the pennant! Oh wait….this ain’t baseball…ah who cares! Moe’s Tavern has won the ball game folks! James Tai on a dandy dime at the last possible second to Jae Kim who was wide open underneath and put it in at the buzzer. Folks, if you were here four seasons ago like I was when Mike Owh missed that bunny, I think this washes away the aftertaste from that one. I know he's had nightmares ever since that night. This one was sweet. Hope you can finally sleep kid. 43-41. Moe’s Tavern is 4-1 and undoubtedly headed over to David Copperfield’s to celebrate this one. Jae Kim, the hero of the game with an assist from James Tai. He’s getting a big kissy kiss from his wife tonight. Good night folks. Drive safe. This is Kevin Song-ders signing off. And that was just the final 6 seconds of the game!
As wretched as the stat lines read for this game – Moe’s with 28% shooting, 11% from three (not one player in double digits) and 6FU with 32% shooting, 18% from three – this contest was as exciting as it gets. Owh, who can finally sleep again (he was a part of the game winning sequence), got the game off on a steal and lay-up that would turn out to be his only basket. It was just the beginning of a series of back and forth baskets from both sides as the teams felt each other out - remember Moe's is coming from the NL so these teams had never faced each other. EK would drop a trey and two throws for 5 in the 1st and Kuet (11 points, 15 boards) countered with a score in transition and a stop n go before Moe’s Jerry Tanaka had a chance to tie the score on an and 1, but missed – missed everything – on the freebie to leave things at 10-9, 6FU, after one. Moe’s hopped ahead 21-13 with an 11-3 run to start the 2nd built off of too much Herbie Tam and a dash of Carter Chow.
Tam dropped 7 points in the 2nd and Chow, normally a reliable 3-point threat and solid passer – made good as advertised by drilling a 3 and dishing to Tai after a steal. Yen, traditionally a player who needs time to heat up, finally found his groove and made like Reggie Bush in USC’s backfield and went through, over, and around Moe’s defense to single-handedly lift 6FU back into the mix with 8 straight points for his team to close the gap to 24-20 at half. Yen, who didn’t even have a jersey to start the game (and had to beg, borrow, and steal one to get one) didn’t stop there. Some players cool off after a pause in action. Others are money. (Remember, we’ve pointed out before that Yen means money in another language.) Yen (20 points, 6 boards) scored another 6 points in the 3rd - twice he made the exact same move on a dribble drive – and on the second one, he knotted things at 28 all, but 6FU still trailed after the 3rd when J. Kim and Chow converted consecutive jumpers to close the period. Before Moe’s could get too far ahead however, Roberto Ko (6 points, 6 boards, 3 assists) took his turn in the driver’s seat and provided a huge spark in getting the game tied once again.
With a drive, a jumper, and an assist to Yen for 3, 6FU pulled within 38-37 right before center Karl Ngok, who injured Owh’s leg, rendering Owh ineffective (why he only scored 1 field goal?), fouled out, making Moe’s job in the paint a little easier. EK converted in the bonus to go up by a 3-pointer that was wiped away by exactly that – a three pointer – from Kuet with a minute left that made it 40-40. Jay-Z, it was not. Instead, it was Jae Kim who split a pair of free throws only to be followed by the same from Yen on the opposite side to make it 41 all. With 10 seconds left, Tanaka was hammered by Ko and it turned out to be a wise move by Ko (a captain is supposed to know who to foul) as the 46% foul shooter stepped to the line and missed both. But, after a couple time outs, all that resulted in was the botched play by Yen that sent Moe’s off the other way to erase the memories of March 16, 2005. It's funny how dreams - and nightmares - can end in the matter of mere seconds. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moe's Tavern | 9 | 15 | 8 | 11 | - | 43 |
| 6 Feet Under | 10 | 10 | 8 | 13 | - | 41 |
Boxscore
| Moe's Tavern - 43 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chow, Carter | 2 / 5 [0.400] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| Ho, Danny | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |
| Kim, Eugene | 1 / 9 [0.111] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 4 / 4 [1.000] | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 7 | |
| Kim, Jae | 2 / 7 [0.286] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| Owh, Mike | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | |
| Park, Henry | DNP | ||||||||||
| Tai, James | 2 / 10 [0.200] | 0 / 5 [0.000] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 6 | |
| Tam, Herb | 4 / 7 [0.571] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | |
| Tanaka, Jerry | 3 / 8 [0.375] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 3 / 7 [0.429] | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | |
| Wu (NYC), Mike | DNP | ||||||||||
| 15 / 53 [0.283] | 2 / 17 [0.118] | 11 / 19 [0.579] | 28 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 14 | 10 | 43 | ||
| 6 Feet Under - 41 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chang, Eugene | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Choi, Steven | DNP | ||||||||||
| Huang, Simon | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 0 / 4 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | |
| Ko, Roberto | 3 / 10 [0.300] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 6 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 6 | |
| Kuet, Leighton | 4 / 8 [0.500] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 15 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 11 | |
| Lee, Jeff | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | |
| Ngok, Karl | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | |
| Tanamachi, Steve | DNP | ||||||||||
| Yen, Joe | 7 / 19 [0.368] | 2 / 7 [0.286] | 4 / 9 [0.444] | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 20 | |
| Yiin, Mark | DNP | ||||||||||
| 16 / 50 [0.320] | 3 / 16 [0.188] | 6 / 13 [0.462] | 35 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 20 | 16 | 41 | ||
Referees
| Lenny Walker: | Rate Me |
| Darrin Woodberry: | Rate Me |