THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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RL Cruisers 63, Spartans 47 |
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Hu Helps Cruisers Force Game 2 | ||||
| December 13, 2007 – New York, NY (DL) – With their backs against the wall, the Cruisers only had one choice. Win. Just two short weeks ago, the Cruisers had faced their Championship opponents – the Spartans - in a semifinal game, and were stymied in a 53-45 loss in which Eddie Wang netted 17 and the Cruisers made a forgettable 1 of 17 from the 3-point line. After finishing off the Fury in the loser’s bracket semifinal to gain another shot at the Spartans, not only did the Cruisers have to win (so they could get another shot at the Spartans since it was they who held the double-elim card still in the finals), but they had to forget. Forget that loss. Forget and win. How could they forget if, as it turns out, in Game 1 of the Finals, the stats smelled the same? Eddie Wang went for 18. The Cruisers were 1 of 16 from the arc. (2 of 33 from 3 in the last two games against the Spartans from there?) The result was likely… Far from the same. From the moment Leon Chu opened the game with a trey (and from there, the Cruisers went 0 for 15 the rest of the way), the Cruisers never looked back.
As the Spartans struggled early on offense, the man the Cruisers really needed to show up – the man known as Tony Hu – didn’t. Hu had his way early and often as his bank shots, post-ups, and jumpers were all going. Hu went 5 of 6 from the floor in the 1st for 11 points to match the Spartans entire output as the Cruisers went up 18-11. Wang kept things interesting for awhile as he went off for 8 points early in the 2nd to draw the Spartans within a point, but CB Liu and George Chan took turns with consecutive baskets each during an 11-1 run to close the half that had the Cruisers up 32-21 and the Spartans with a glazed look in their eye. A 6-2 run to open the 2nd half by the Cruisers signaled the beginning of the end for the Spartans and the Cruisers moved in for the kill. Despite a trio of 3s by John Lopez (13 pts) and Wang, Hu once again got hot, went for 8 in the 3rd, and just had to make sure they didn’t muck it up in the 4th as they headed into it up a baker’s dozen. Instead of letting up, resting starters for a possible second game coming right up after this one, or succumbing to the Spartans refusal to say die, RL applied more pressure on d and controlled the glass in the 4th as Chan (16 pts, 9 rbs) and Hu kept hounding the boards and cleaning up garbage, or working their way to the line, to go up 20. The Spartans, with 4 minutes and change left, threw in the towel as Mark Lee instructed his guys to stand down, telling them to, “Save energy, yo.” Having turned the ball over 19 times (to the Cruisers’ 6), the Spartans suddenly found themselves in a one and done situation in the next game which was to come right up. It was a position that they didn’t want to be in, but Hu, who had 27 points (8/10 FG; 11/11 FT) and 9 rebounds, put them there. As many teams have found out over the years, usually when the Cruisers only have one choice, it means that Hu only has one choice. Win. Won - 63-47. One more and done.
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Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RL Cruisers | 18 | 14 | 14 | 17 | - | 63 |
| Spartans | 11 | 10 | 12 | 14 | - | 47 |
Boxscore
| RL Cruisers - 63 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chan, George | 7 / 10 [0.700] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 9 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 16 | |
| Cheng, David | DNP | ||||||||||
| Chin, Danny | 0 / 6 [0.000] | 0 / 5 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| Chu, Howard | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
| Chu, Leon | 3 / 6 [0.500] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | |
| Hu, Tony | 8 / 10 [0.800] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 11 / 11 [1.000] | 9 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 27 | |
| Liu, CB | 3 / 10 [0.300] | 0 / 4 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | |
| Tso, Quincy | DNP | ||||||||||
| Yeung, Gary | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Yeung, Stan | 1 / 8 [0.125] | 0 / 5 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | |
| 24 / 54 [0.444] | 1 / 16 [0.063] | 14 / 15 [0.933] | 27 | 12 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 18 | 63 | ||
| Spartans - 47 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Choi, James | 2 / 7 [0.286] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |
| Choi, James | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 2 | |
| Chung, John | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Ha, David | DNP | ||||||||||
| Kim (NYC), Joe | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |
| Lam, Kenneth | DNP | ||||||||||
| Le, Danny | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Lee, Yea | DNP | ||||||||||
| Lee (NY), Mark | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| Lopez, John | 5 / 12 [0.417] | 3 / 9 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 13 | |
| Wang, Eddie | 5 / 8 [0.625] | 3 / 4 [0.750] | 5 / 6 [0.833] | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 18 | |
| 14 / 36 [0.389] | 6 / 18 [0.333] | 13 / 20 [0.650] | 23 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 19 | 16 | 47 | ||
Referees
| William Bullock: | Rate Me |
| Sean Fincher: | Rate Me |
| Lamont Long: | Rate Me |