THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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New York Fury 58, Spartans 56 |
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Fury Finish With Flurry, Knock Off Spartans | |
| May 1, 2008 – New York, NY (DL) – If the casual fan were to be told that the New York Fury would commit 11 more turnovers than the Spartans, that Christian Stevens would be held to just 6 points, and that they would shoot a collective 38.1% from the foul line (and that’s foul in every sense of the word) and yet win, said casual fan would tell whoever told him that that he was smoking too much opium. Crack out the pipes, cause that’s just exactly what happened! On Thursday, the Fury snuck by the Spartans in an opening round playoff game featuring the 4th and 5th seeds, 58-56, sending the Spartans to the loser’s bracket and the Fury onwards to face the winner of the 1 vs. 8 game. That they did it by committing a ton of turnovers, hardly anything from Stevens offensively, and with free throw shooting worse that anything you’ve ever seen, was nothing short of miraculous. This is the playoff and this is where miracles can happen.
It was actually Stevens, who was held in check for the entire game (but had 11 boards and 3 blocks), who made a huge shot when it most counted, however. With the Fury down a point after Chris Youn made a free throw (his only one in 6 tries) with 14 seconds left in the game, Stevens rebounded the miss off the second try, stepped back, and connected on a trifecta that stood up to the be the game winner after the Spartans’ James Choi uncharacteristically missed two free throws that could have either tied or put the Spartans ahead for the game. The Fury’s James Choi then split two, Joe Kim was left with a contested look at the buzzer for the Spartans, and the Fury finagled a win that didn’t look likely earlier in the 4th as the Spartans got on a roll. The Spartans held a 6-point lead midway through the 4th after Yoshi Kagitomi (12 pts, 10 rbs) connected on a big time move, but the Fury didn’t panic and showed they have the moxie to play from behind. Ren Hsieh (11 pts, 5 rbs, 3 stls, 7 turnovers) bagged a trey, Jeff Moy (10 pts) made a bucket, and Banglee Takenouchi (14 pts, 2 assts) banked a shot in for a quick 7-0 spurt that put the Fury up 53-52, setting up the wild finish. What this did was negate a solid effort by the Spartans’ Choi who finished with 18 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals. Choi hit his first four three-pointers of the game, but the Spartans could never get ahead much mainly because teammate Eddie Wang, who hasn’t been steady Eddie as of late, couldn’t shoot his way out of his slump. E-Dub went 1/11 from downtown in the 1st half alone – and then took only 2 shots in the 2nd half – acting a shell of his regular self, much to the delight of the Fury, whose own guards carried them in this big win. Stevens, Youn, Alvin Wang, and Rich Chang combined for 14 points – usually we can expect double that – but Bang and Hsieh had their strokes going to the chagrin of the Spartans. The Fury did clean the boards, gaining a +11 advantage there and they shot the ball well – hitting over 40% of their shots. So, despite their sloppy play, Stevens being held down for the most part, and an awful free throw outing, it was their destiny to win. If you’ve got destiny and opium (though we don’t condone it) on your side, the feeling can be ecstatic. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spartans | 18 | 15 | 12 | 11 | - | 56 |
| New York Fury | 20 | 12 | 12 | 14 | - | 58 |
Boxscore
| Spartans - 56 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Choi, James | 6 / 9 [0.667] | 5 / 7 [0.714] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 4 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 18 | |
| Chung, John | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | |
| Kagitomi, Yoshi | 5 / 14 [0.357] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 10 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 12 | |
| Kim, Joe | 3 / 6 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 5 / 8 [0.625] | 5 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 11 | |
| Lam, Kenneth | 0 / 5 [0.000] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Lee, Mark | 3 / 8 [0.375] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | |
| Wang, Eddie | 2 / 17 [0.118] | 1 / 11 [0.091] | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | |
| 20 / 62 [0.323] | 7 / 25 [0.280] | 9 / 16 [0.563] | 30 | 13 | 9 | 1 | 6 | 16 | 56 | ||
| New York Fury - 58 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chang, Rich | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Choi, James | 2 / 5 [0.400] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | |
| De Leon, Andrew | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Hsieh, Ren | 5 / 10 [0.500] | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 11 | |
| Kwok, Jason | DNP | ||||||||||
| Moy, Jeff | 4 / 11 [0.364] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 10 | |
| Parekh, Ram | DNP | ||||||||||
| Redhead, Roger | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 3 / 4 [0.750] | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |
| Stevens, Christian | 2 / 5 [0.400] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 11 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |
| Takenouchi, Banglee | 5 / 7 [0.714] | 4 / 4 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 14 | |
| Wang, Alvin | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |
| Youn, Chris | 1 / 7 [0.143] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 1 / 6 [0.167] | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | |
| 21 / 52 [0.404] | 8 / 21 [0.381] | 8 / 21 [0.381] | 41 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 17 | 15 | 58 | ||
Referees
| Lamont Long: | Rate Me |
| William Reeves: | Rate Me |