THE DREAM LEAGUE
National Basketball Tournaments
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New York D-Unit 70, Dream League Warriors 67 |
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D-Unit Comes Back to Defeat DLW to Advance to Final | |||||
December 17, 2006 - Brooklyn, NY (DL) - Following up the Renegades-Cruisers semi-final would be a tough act to follow, but the New York D-Unit and Dream League Warriors didn't do a shabby job as the second semi also went down to the wire. When DLW couldn't get a clean look at a 3-point try to tie the game, the horn sounded, and the D-Unit escaped with a 70-67 win to move onto face the Renegades in the Championship. From the early going, the D-Unit seemed destined to make waste of DLW in a haste as Usama Nausrudeen tore apart their defense for 7 1st period points as they jumped out to an early 10-2 lead.
Things looked so gloom for DLW, their only points for a long while to begin the game were from a Brian Yang lay-up - his first field goal of the entire tournament. When the guy on your team who shoots the least is leading you in scoring, things must be grim. Eventually, Nic Echevestre would get a couple baskets and when Jon Chin tossed in a wild jumper before the quarter's end, DLW would trail only 15-12. The momentum they built up started to peak in the 2nd as they outscored D-Unit 23-17. Echevestre continued to hurt D-Unit with 7 more points, Young Yu scored twice, Justin Chin had 4, but the biggest surprise was Yang, who made two driving runners on his way to 5 unexpected points as he exploited D-Unit's lack of respect of guarding him with a player since he rarely shot the ball at all.
DLW led 35-32 at the half and to start the 3rd, fickle momentum stayed on their side as they ran out to an 11-point lead as Echevestre stayed with the hot hand. His 9 3rd period points primarily came in the early going as just as D-Unit looked discombobulated and ready to throw in the towel, Ali Azizikia wouldn't let them. After all, they still had him, they had a heavy rebounding advantage, and they had a lot of time. Behind his 7 points in the 3rd, by the time the quarter ended, D-Unit had pulled to within 3 again, 53-50, taking back the momentum entirely.
They kept it up as Azizikia scored 11 points in the 4th and DLW could only manage 2 of 8 from the floor. DLW stayed in it due in part to free throws (they had 18 attempts), but they did themselves no favors there (they made only 10). A few more free throws here and there, and maybe it didn't have to come down to desperation 3's at the end. But that's how it ended. With D-Unit on top. With D-Unit pounding DLW on the glass, 43-21 - more than doubling them up (Mo Ghumman led with 14). With Azizikia doing what was necessary with 27 points and Nausrudeen 17. Echevestre had 24 points, 3 steals, and 2 blocks and Yang had 12 points and 7 rebounds, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't as wild and untamed as the semi-final before it, but this one was every bit as memorable in its own right. Final Four basketball in the Gotham City Games was fantastic.
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Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
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| Dream League Warriors | 12 | 23 | 18 | 14 | - | 67 |
| New York D-Unit | 15 | 17 | 18 | 20 | - | 70 |
Boxscore
| Dream League Warriors - 67 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chin, Jason | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | |
| Chin, Jon | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Chock, Brandon (dup) | 3 / 8 [0.375] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 7 | |
| Echevestre, Nic | 8 / 15 [0.533] | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 6 / 9 [0.667] | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 24 | |
| Kamdang, Len (dup) | DNP | ||||||||||
| Kao, Justin | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 7 / 8 [0.875] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 11 | |
| Wang, Danny | DNP | ||||||||||
| Yang, Brian | 5 / 6 [0.833] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 7 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 12 | |
| Yu, Young (dup) | 3 / 11 [0.273] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 6 | |
| 23 / 49 [0.469] | 3 / 14 [0.214] | 18 / 28 [0.643] | 21 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 23 | 67 | ||
| New York D-Unit - 70 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ahmad, Siddique | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
| Azizikia, Ali | 8 / 12 [0.667] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 9 / 11 [0.818] | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 27 | |
| Bhartiya, Vic | 2 / 10 [0.200] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 | |
| Ghumman, Mo (dup) | 2 / 10 [0.200] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 14 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 6 | |
| Hoque, Mo | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | |
| Jain, Dude | DNP | ||||||||||
| Mirza, Mo | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Mushriqi, Nafi | DNP | ||||||||||
| Nausrudeen, Usama | 6 / 14 [0.429] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 5 / 7 [0.714] | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 17 | |
| Singh, Sabba | DNP | ||||||||||
| Singh, Vish | DNP | ||||||||||
| 23 / 58 [0.397] | 5 / 12 [0.417] | 19 / 26 [0.731] | 43 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 19 | 70 | ||
Referees
| William Bullock: | Rate Me |
| Winston Howarton: | Rate Me |