THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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RL Cruisers 53, New York Fury 46 |
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Cruisers Complete Another Championship Season | |
| May 29, 2008 – Brooklyn, NY (DL) – No doubt about it, this was not who they were expecting to play. Chants of beat Da Bien,beat Da Bien, beat Da Bien that rang in Cruiser fans’ heads had to change on a dime when they got word (some on Thursday morning) that the New York Fury had done the impossible late Wednesday night. They’d gone done and dumped Da Bien. Da Bien, dead. And if the Cruisers, who had dealt Da Bien their first loss of the playoffs earlier Wednesday evening that sent the heavy favorites into the loser’s bracket where they faced, and then lost to, the Fury, didn’t believe it by hearing about it (or reading about it online), when they arrived to the arena for the championship, they finally had to believe it when lined up across from them at tip off were men in black, not red. Well, given that the hottest team of the moment was perhaps the Fury, who had reeled off three straight gutsy wins to get to the championship, this might have been the match-up no one knew they wanted to see. As the game teetered back and forth through the first three quarters, and the Fury held a 38-37 lead heading into the 4th quarter, some sensed a second game coming (the Fury needed to win twice in order to win the series), but the Cruisers, who had reared their championship head the night before against Da Bien when they were down big, knew it was go time. Go time is Cruiser-speak for when to turn it on in order to take over the game. Against Da Bien, go time came in the 2nd quarter. In Game 1 of the championship, because the Cruisers didn’t want to be extended into another game on another night, go time was here and it was now. It had to start at the top of the 4th quarter.
Forget everything that just happened in the first 27 minutes. Forget that Christian Stevens and Roger Redhead had abused them for 10 points apiece (but nothing more) and James Choi 9 (he’d finish with a team high 14.) Forget that the Fury were the underdogs playing with nothing to lose and they were playing loose. Forget the fact that this was their 7th game in the last 6 days, the last 9 minutes of 172 minutes of grueling basketball in that stretch. 9 more minutes. 540 seconds to greatness. Not that the Cruisers weren’t already great, but in order to claim their 4th chip in 6 seasons, in order to further cement their dynasty, they had to forget all that happened in the past week, including in this game up to the start of the 4th quarter, and go. “Shove it down their throat inside! Take it! Take it” Those were the words of Coach X during the changeover from the 3rd to the 4th and those were all the words the Cruisers had to hear. Go time. George Chan, who went a perfect 6 of 6 from field for 13 points and 11 rebounds, scored the first two baskets of the quarter, the 2nd off an inbounds lob courtesy of Stan Yeung (6 assists.) (Those inbound plays RL calls work from time to time, don’t they? Was that one 2 or was it 3? Maybe it was 4…) CB Liu (14 pts and aggressive with his shot from the get-go) nailed a J. Tony Hu (16 pts, 9 rbs, 2 assts, 3 stls) iced a another. That’s to say nothing about the Cruiser D that was swarming and banging as good as ever with G, T, and Howie Chu throwing bodies around in the paint while Stan, CB, and Leon Chu harassed the perimeter. When Chan stuck a turnaround with just under a minute left in the game, the Cruisers had played nearly as perfect a quarter as possible. It was a game-changing and game-clinching spurt for the first 8 minutes of those last 9 minutes. It was a perfect 10. A 10-0 run that took RL from down 1 to up 9. The Fury finally found a flurry of points in the final minute, but Yeung, Liu, and Hu merely marched to the line and made a combined perfect 6 of 6 from the line to put this game, the chip, and their legacy on ice, clinching the crown, 53-46. It was the perfect ending to maybe what was an imperfect season. For once, many weren’t picking the Cruisers to cruise to the title. It looked like it was Da Bien’s destiny. The Cruisers would be the challengers. Kudos to the Fury for knocking out the heavies, but RL was the ones who held up their end of the bargain, and for it, to the victor goes the spoils. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Fury | 15 | 13 | 10 | 8 | - | 46 |
| RL Cruisers | 19 | 7 | 11 | 16 | - | 53 |
Boxscore
| New York Fury - 46 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chang, Rich | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Choi, James | 5 / 10 [0.500] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 14 | |
| De Leon, Andrew | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| Hsieh, Ren | DNP | ||||||||||
| Kwok, Jason | DNP | ||||||||||
| Moy, Jeff | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | |
| Parekh, Ram | DNP | ||||||||||
| Redhead, Roger | 3 / 7 [0.429] | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 10 | |
| Stevens, Christian | 5 / 9 [0.556] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 10 | |
| Takenouchi, Banglee | 1 / 8 [0.125] | 0 / 5 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| Wang, Alvin | DNP | ||||||||||
| Youn, Chris | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 3 | |
| 18 / 50 [0.360] | 6 / 22 [0.273] | 4 / 5 [0.800] | 21 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 15 | 18 | 46 | ||
| RL Cruisers - 53 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chan, George | 6 / 6 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 13 | |
| Cheng, David | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | |
| Chu, Howard | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Chu, Leon | 1 / 8 [0.125] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Hu, Tony | 4 / 9 [0.444] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 8 / 8 [1.000] | 9 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 16 | |
| Liu, CB | 5 / 15 [0.333] | 2 / 9 [0.222] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 14 | |
| Tso, Quincy | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Yeung, Garry | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| Yeung, Stan | 0 / 4 [0.000] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 2 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| Yiin, Mark | DNP | ||||||||||
| 18 / 56 [0.321] | 3 / 21 [0.143] | 14 / 17 [0.824] | 31 | 11 | 6 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 53 | ||
Referees
| William Bullock: | Rate Me |
| Gina Kennedy: | Rate Me |
| Lamont Long: | Rate Me |