THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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New York Fury 57, Gen X 54 |
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How Things Can Change in an Instant |
| April 9, 2008 - Brooklyn, NY (DL) - We see it in the movies, we read it in the newspapers. It’s the lottery winner that has lived in a trailer for most of his life and hits the jackpot, Milli Vanilli winning a Grammy only to have it taken away from them the next morning, that one date that you’re on and she is showing you nothing but love, but the next day she doesn’t even want to know you. Hero for the moment, goat the next, or in the case of the Gen X/Fury game, the next 2 minutes of overtime. It almost has a karmic law of averages to it. For instance, shooting percentage. One game you’re on fire, the next you’re ice cold, but it all evens out to your normal shooting percentage. It even works with the good person who’s lived in a trailer all their lives and wins the lottery. The deep valley and the top of the mountain even things out. Milli Vanilli experienced great success, but cheated and become a national joke. The only place it can’t be explained is in the relationship example. So-called experts can only come to the conclusion that external factors such as past relationships, psychological disorders, testosterone, PMS and other factors make any controlled studies difficult. On Wednesday at Polytech, the law of averages were at work once again - we saw a completely different Fury team from the previous Sunday when they were thrashed at the hands of the Cruisers and we also saw Sung-Mo Cho of Gen X hit a three point heave in the dying seconds to put the game into overtime, only to see Cho stink it up in the extra period. Fury captain Ren Hsieh was furious last Sunday blaming a lack of commitment from his teammates as only 2 other regular members of his team showed up to the play the powerhouse RL Cruisers. To make matters worse, the game against the Cruisers was a personal request by Captain Hsieh as a rematch of an earlier meeting that the Cruisers won. This time around, Hsieh was going to have none of it as he had a full roster of 7 show up at Polytech for their matchup against the struggling, but always-dangerous Gen X team. Unfortunately for Gen X, they have been waiting for their fortunes to turn around for two seasons now. This season they have only been able to muster up one win defeating Da Bien on a last second shot by Rob Schopen in week 1. To make matters worse, the hero of their only win is out for the season because of an ankle injury suffered in a pick up game and surgery on his finger that he has been putting off since last season. Gen X, however, is never an easy win when teams have to face perennial all-stars Brandon Chock and Danny Wang. The Fury were realizing this as the Landlord’s (Brandon Chock) defensive presence in the middle stifled any inside attack put on by the Fury. The heady Danny Wang was also able to stick his hands on some steals in the first half. It was the sharp shooting of Hsieh that kept the Fury within 6 points at the half. Gen X’s scoring efforts were more spread out as Cho started out the scoring by going to the line, Dan Hsiao connecting on a 3 and, Wang hitting a couple of treys as well. The Gen X offense seemed to be running a little more than usual, perhaps because of them actually having subs for this game. The score at half-time was 21-15. The 3rd Quarter was all about Roger Redhead of the Fury. The 3-point marksman started his scoring spree by going baseline to score a lay up over Chock, a trey and a four point play to complete a rare and impressive basketball ‘cycle’ of sorts. Redhead scored 11 out of the 19 points for the Fury in the quarter, which was the same amount scored by Gen X in the same frame. The Fury went ahead 34-32 after three. The dramatic 4th quarter saw the Fury maintain their lead until Cho heaved his three pointer over Andrew De Leon in the dying seconds of the game to tie the game at 50 and put the already intense game into overtime. Were the fortunes of Gen X about to turn around this game? Had Cho, who has had multiple opportunities to win games with last second shots and has failed each time, finally found the magic? When the overtime starts and Gen X is immediately called for a fragrant foul moments after the tip off, it usually is not a good sign that things are going to turn around. Chock won the tip to put it in the hands of Cho, but Cho had the ball stolen from him by Jeff Moy who passed it up to a streaking Christian Stevens. Stevens was having a rough night, as the Landlord was frustrating him all night with his defense and also some hard fouls in the first period. In this instance though, Stevens took one on the chin as Chock, who has a body of a Greek God, tackled Stevens on the way to the hoop. Stevens hit both free throws and the Fury had the ball back. On the ensuing play, Cho, the hero of the moment was fouled on a drive to the basket, but missed both free throws. It wasn’t the missed free throws that did Gen X in, but when on the next play Cho turned the ball over on an errant pass that led to a foul on Banglee Takenouchi, it was costly. So much for the heroics on Cho’s part as his big shot was for not for he did more harm in the overtime than good. Gen X also did not do themselves any favors by emulating the Memphis Tigers during the NCAA finals against Kansas by missing their free throws down the stretch during the fourth. The Fury went back to their winning ways by winning a nail-biter 57-54 and Gen X lost another close game. According to the Karmic Law of Averages, you’d think Gen X was due, but they’ll have to wait another game for their fortunes to turn around. Until then, they’ll have to work on the things that they can control - like free throws. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gen X | 11 | 10 | 11 | 18 | 4 | 54 |
| New York Fury | 6 | 9 | 19 | 16 | 7 | 57 |
Boxscore
| Gen X - 54 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cho, Sung-Mo | 3 / 7 [0.429] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 8 | |
| Chock, Brandon | 5 / 10 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 / 10 [0.300] | 19 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 13 | |
| Hsiao, Danny | 4 / 11 [0.364] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 10 | |
| Kuet, Leighton | 0 / 5 [0.000] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| Schopen, Robert | DNP | ||||||||||
| Shen, Felix | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |
| Wang, Danny | 5 / 8 [0.625] | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 3 / 3 [1.000] | 3 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 15 | |
| Yen, Joe | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| 19 / 45 [0.422] | 4 / 12 [0.333] | 12 / 24 [0.500] | 38 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 17 | 17 | 54 | ||
| New York Fury - 57 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chang, Rich | DNP | ||||||||||
| Choi, James | DNP | ||||||||||
| De Leon, Andrew | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| Hsieh, Ren | 4 / 13 [0.308] | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 5 / 5 [1.000] | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 14 | |
| Kwok, Jason | DNP | ||||||||||
| Moy, Jeff | 3 / 7 [0.429] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 11 | |
| Parekh, Ram | DNP | ||||||||||
| Redhead, Roger | 4 / 7 [0.571] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 3 / 3 [1.000] | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 13 | |
| Stevens, Christian | 2 / 12 [0.167] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 10 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |
| Takenouchi, Banglee | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 4 / 4 [1.000] | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 9 | |
| Wang, Alvin | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Youn, Chris | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | |
| 16 / 51 [0.314] | 6 / 16 [0.375] | 19 / 26 [0.731] | 32 | 5 | 12 | 4 | 15 | 15 | 57 | ||
Referees
| Lamont Long: | Rate Me |
| Joe Thompson: | Rate Me |