THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
|
RL Cruisers 59, New York Fury 44 |
|
|
Cruisers Begin Title Defense | |
| January 17, 2008 – New York, NY (DL) – So, this is how it’s gonna be, eh? Very interesting. Long regarded as one of the best and yet most polite teams around – they wouldn’t just beat you by 20-30 points, they’d look you in the eye, shake your hand, and then gather around and chant your team name in their post-game huddle in a show of sportsmanship. In other words, they’d make you feel like crap and loved all at once. A new leaf in this new year may be turning. In actuality, this new leaf was turning on the night of last season’s championship. Ever since the passing of the Cruisers’ coach Rob Lee in December of last year, the Cruisers have been in search of a replacement. After sitting out a season, the Cruisers returned last season, got to the championship, and then found their new coach (where was he during the rest of the season?) – someone whose name is not yet known to the public. Coach X, we’ll call him, showed up to last season’s championship night, informed the league brass that he has been coaching some of the Cruisers since they were kids and took the reigns of the team right then and there.
And right then and there, the identity of this proud franchise began to change. We weren’t sure, but Coach X seemed to be a cantankerous individual, barking out comments from the sideline against the Spartans that, no matter what language you speak, certainly sounded as if they were belittling insults to get into the heads of the opposition. It seemed to work then – the Cruisers won the chip in two – and it seemed to work again on this season’s opening night. Coach X, making no fast friends amongst the New York Fury, shouted out sarcastic comments in the 59-44 Cruiser win, sounding more like Robin Ficker, the NBA’s most prominent heckler who used to sit courtside at Washington Bullets’ games spewing out so much garbage that it was laughable. This game should have been about the Cruisers’ title defense and the statement they made in defusing a Fury team who looks locked and loaded this season with what will hopefully be a full roster led by the likes of Christian Stevens and Ren Hsieh (but no Harris Chung)? Instead, hearing Coach X bellow, “Oh man, can he jump!??” on a missed Stevens dunk attempt in garbage time somehow just sticks in the craw. It just seems so un-Cruiser-like. Under Lee, their teams let their play do the talking. While it was hard to take a Tony Hu elbow to the gut or a CB Liu 3 in the face, what was harder was getting it served up to you by gentlemen who were led by the ultimate gentleman. Lee was the John Wooden of the Asian circuit. The new Cruisers now, and maybe it’s not an entirely bad thing, have a little attitude about them and their new coach is not going to be afraid to flaunt it. If you’re going to talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk. And walk is what the Cruisers did in walking away with this convincing win to set a tone for the season that Tone & Company won’t be messin’ around. It started early and often as Hu, George Chan, and Stan Yeung each had a pair of baskets in the 1st to storm to an 18-4 lead after the quarter ended. For the Fury, after Chung’s game-opening 360 and 1 play off the opening tap, it was all downhill. For Chung personally, it really may be all downhill as he could soon be swirling amidst a storm of controversy if he leaves the team to jump over to Da Bien as is reportedly going to happen. It’s mad confusing. Just as it was for the Fury after Garry Yeung took Stan Yeung’s third assist of the opening quarter in for a lay-up at the buzzer demonstrating that these Cruisers will keep running despite them being more comfortable now playing all three of their bigs at the same time. Call it the new triangle offense. With Hu, Chan, and Howie Chu on the court together, as they were many times throughout the game, Stan had no problems in directing, “Howie! Stay! Tony! Go! George! Come out!” The three did as they were told and Stan had a field day picking and choosing who he wanted to dump the ball into for one of his 9 dimes. It was 28-8 at mid-way through the 2nd and not only were the Cruisers relentless, so too was Coach X with his offerings. “Oh, that’s a travel!” “Oh, he earned that one!” “Oh, there’s no foul!” While the Cruisers cruised on in the 2nd half, maintaining a near 20-point lead for much of it, one could feel the Fury’s fury brewing underneath. Their main man – Stevens – was suffering through a forgettable night (4/17 FG). The Cruisers shot 50% on them, creamed them on the glass 33-19, and generally had their way with them in every which way they chose. The three bigs had big nights – Hu: 12 pts, 6 rbs, 3 assts, 2 steals; Chan: 17 pts, 7 rbs and his first career 3-pointer in the waning moments; Chu: 13 pts, 11 robs, 2 blks. The Harris Chung situation was about to manifest itself. And Coach X was adding insult to injury. It’s a new year, a new season, and a new Cruiser feel. The Fury won’t forget. The public better remember. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Fury | 4 | 13 | 10 | 17 | - | 44 |
| RL Cruisers | 18 | 13 | 16 | 12 | - | 59 |
Boxscore
| New York Fury - 44 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chang, Rich | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Choi, James | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Chung, Harris | 5 / 12 [0.417] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 12 | |
| De Leon, Andrew | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 6 | |
| Hsieh, Ren | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| Kwok, Jason | DNP | ||||||||||
| Moy, Jeff | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | |
| Parekh, Ram | DNP | ||||||||||
| Redhead, Roger | 3 / 5 [0.600] | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 3 / 3 [1.000] | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 11 | |
| Stevens, Christian | 4 / 17 [0.235] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 10 | |
| Takenouchi, Banglee | DNP | ||||||||||
| Wang, Alvin | DNP | ||||||||||
| Youn, Chris | DNP | ||||||||||
| 16 / 51 [0.314] | 4 / 15 [0.267] | 8 / 11 [0.727] | 19 | 4 | 12 | 5 | 18 | 15 | 44 | ||
| RL Cruisers - 59 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chan, George | 6 / 10 [0.600] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 4 / 5 [0.800] | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 17 | |
| Cheng, David | DNP | ||||||||||
| Chu, Howard | 6 / 8 [0.750] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 11 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 13 | |
| Chu, Leon | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Hu, Tony | 5 / 13 [0.385] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 2 / 5 [0.400] | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 12 | |
| Liu, CB | DNP | ||||||||||
| Tso, Quincy | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 5 | |
| Yeung, Garry | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
| Yeung, Stan | 2 / 7 [0.286] | 0 / 4 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 3 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 5 | |
| Yiin, Mark | DNP | ||||||||||
| 23 / 46 [0.500] | 3 / 11 [0.273] | 10 / 16 [0.625] | 33 | 16 | 10 | 3 | 23 | 10 | 59 | ||
Referees
| Kirt Joseph: | Rate Me |
| Gina Kennedy: | Rate Me |