THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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New York Fury 52, Spartans 49 |
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Fury Rates Higher Than Spartans This Week |
| Fury Soap Opera Continues |
| January 30, 2008 – New York, NY (DL) – Only two games into the season, and already it’s had more plot line twists and turns than your average episode of As The World Turns for the New York Fury. First, it was Harris Chung deciding to play for Da Bien, then the Fury, and then ultimately Da Bien again after he suited up and played in the Fury’s season opening loss to the RL Cruisers. (Chung gone and screwed up our stats leaderboard 'cause we ain't that saavy yet to combine his totals from the Fury game with his one Da Bien game – why you see his name twice on the charts.) Then, it was their second game, Wednesday night’s match-up against the Spartans, a game that would see former Spartans’ reserve guard James Choi, who came over to the Fury in the off-season, go against his former brothers. No, James Choi the now Fury is not really a brother of James Choi the Spartan (Fury JC was referred to as JC the II last season), but after spending a season in the trenches with the Spartans, and coming up just short in the Finals against the Cruisers, JC bolted for the Fury when the opportunity for more playing time arose. Well, either that, or the chance to grow his own identity in the league instead of being known as the “other” James Choi on the Spartans. And so it was that even though Christian Stevens had 14 points, even though Jeff Moy made 10 points, 6 boards, and 2 assists, and even though Chris Youn totaled 9 points, 10 boards, and 4 dimes, after the Fury topped the Spartans 52-49, Eddie Wang and gang felt like it was James Choi who backstabbed them for the win. Indecision (Chung), traitor (Choi), backstabbing? FOX TV may want to get a piece of this. If this were some episode of some filthy reality show, it would have had a slow beginning as both teams sputtered to start up in this one with the Spartans only leading 8-6 after the 1st. Moy took nearly as many shots as he did all last season with 7 1st quarter attempts, netting 2 of them, while the Spartans looked about 180 degrees different than they did last week against TSIV. In fact, for the duration of the game, they lacked whatever energy and spark they executed against TSIV and that’s due in large part to the Fury playing their foil. The game picked up in the 2nd as Yoshi Kagitomi and the Spartans’ Choi converted buckets early to establish a 12-6 lead, but hard to believe as it may be, from that point on, Y2K was pretty much never heard from again on offense. With Stevens and Choi bodying Y2K and with the Fury able to match the Spartans' transition offense (this is where the Fury’s Choi was a thorn since he knew the Spartan ways), they held the Spartans' running center in check and eventually got their game going. They closed the half with a 20-8 run in which Choi hit a jumper and a 3 and Youn scored 4 with his second basket coming on a high arcing and 1 shot over Y2K that brought them to within 26-20 at intermission. Stevens took over in the 3rd, bagging 3 shots, and another wrinkle in the Fury’s storyline manifested itself lest none of you notice. With the Super Soul Sonics sitting this season out, players off of their team became available and with Y2K already on the Spartans’ side, Banglee Takenouchi – perhaps one of the top 3 points guards in the DL – became a Fury member. When a sequence in which Y2K hit Wang (13 pts) for a triple was followed by Bang banging home his own three, mass confusion with the Japanese press on the sidelines broke out for a moment as they had to straighten out that the two weren’t on the same team anymore. As they sorted the situation, Moy, playing like his old Soy self, got saucy with a tough finish in transition over Y2K, then found Stevens for a bank shot, before Youn hit a wing triple – all for a 6-0 run to put the Fury into their first lead of the game. The Spartans grit their teeth and Mark Lee quickly tied the game with a 3, but a Ren Hsieh triple and an Andrew De Leon offensive rebound and rainbow shot at the 3rd quarter buzzer boosted the Fury’s moral entering the 4th. No one knows the enemy like yourself. That sounds like it should be a cool saying by some really smart man, but this writer actually just made it up. The thought is that no one but one of your own knows when to go in for the kill, when to defeat his opponent when he is at his weakest. And that’s why Fury Choi went in for the kill with a 3 to start the 4th to give his team a 42-36 advantage. For awhile, it looked like it might hold up as for nearly the next 4 minutes, neither side scored again. Alas, it was too early and the Spartans would get back into the game, but not before a hilarious sequence occurred as Moy was left wide open for a lay-up when Wang, who thought an exiting Roger Redhead was his man he had to guard, followed Redhead towards the bench, leaving Moy all alone. Spartan Choi (9 pts, 5 rbs, 5 assts, 2 stls) knotted the game at 44 with a 4-point play, but the Fury would take another 4-point lead with 25.9 seconds left after Stevens got a hook to go and Youn bagged two free throws. With 11.9, Y2K was heard from again finally as he nailed a 3 from the corner to bring the Spartans within 50-49 and then Moy went to the line in an attempt to ice the game. Or so he thought. As any good episode of a show will have, suspense hung in the air at the end. After Moy made the first free throw, his teammates called a curious timeout (why would you ice your own teammate?), and as he made his way back to the line, asked, “Who’s winning?” It was 51-49 and Moy thought he might have been trying to make it 51-50. That’s good awareness, Moy. Or that’s a bad time out, Fury. It really frazzled the fella. Whatever it was, it made for good television. Moy made the second, Wang was long on a last second try to send it to OT, and the soap opera finally concluded. As for why Wang and gang felt Fury Choi was the backstabber who helped them lose? Simple. Choi made the 3-pointer at the start of the 4th that Wang missed at the end. It was the difference in the game and that’s all there really is to say. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spartans | 8 | 18 | 10 | 13 | - | 49 |
| New York Fury | 6 | 14 | 19 | 13 | - | 52 |
Boxscore
| Spartans - 49 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Choi, James | 3 / 9 [0.333] | 2 / 8 [0.250] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 9 | |
| Chung, John | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | |
| Kagitomi, Yoshi | 2 / 9 [0.222] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 6 | |
| Kim, Joe | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |
| Lam, Kenneth | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| Lee, Mark | 2 / 8 [0.250] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |
| Wang, Eddie | 4 / 12 [0.333] | 4 / 10 [0.400] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 13 | |
| 18 / 53 [0.340] | 8 / 25 [0.320] | 5 / 10 [0.500] | 26 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 15 | 14 | 49 | ||
| New York Fury - 52 | |||||||||||
| 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] | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Choi, James | 3 / 7 [0.429] | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 8 | |
| De Leon, Andrew | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Hsieh, Ren | 1 / 7 [0.143] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | |
| Kwok, Jason | DNP | ||||||||||
| Moy, Jeff | 4 / 12 [0.333] | 0 / 4 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 6 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 10 | |
| Parekh, Ram | DNP | ||||||||||
| Redhead, Roger | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | |
| Stevens, Christian | 5 / 8 [0.625] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 14 | |
| Takenouchi, Banglee | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | |
| Wang, Alvin | DNP | ||||||||||
| Youn, Chris | 3 / 5 [0.600] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 2 / 5 [0.400] | 10 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 9 | |
| 19 / 50 [0.380] | 6 / 20 [0.300] | 8 / 13 [0.615] | 36 | 13 | 6 | 4 | 21 | 10 | 52 | ||
Referees
| Winston Howarton: | Rate Me |
| Joe Thompson: | Rate Me |