THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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Cali Love 69, RL Cruisers 58 |
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Cali Love Clinches Finals Berth | |
| Ech Drops 28 in Game 3 Win Over Cruisers | |
| December 16, 2009 – New York, NY (DL) – We could get used to this 3-game series thing. How close was the Cali Love/Cruisers series to going the other way? THIS close. Cali Love closed out the worst season ever for the Cruisers on Wednesday with a 69-58 decision to win the 3-game set 2-1 and advance onto the Finals, but it could have just as easily been 2-1 the other way. The truth is, this series could have gone either way either 2-0 or 2-1. Game 1 saw the Cruisers win as Love showed up with just 4 players, putting up a valiant, but misguided, fight. If Love had 5 – who knows – maybe they take Game 1 and then win game 2, as they did, on a last second put-back by Daniel Liu, 54-53, and sweep the series. Or, perhaps the Cruisers hang onto win Game 2 53-52 and they sweep the series 2-0, shutting the door on a disappointing season for Cali. See? It was THAT close. Instead, with a 4th to remember, Cali Love took control of Game 3, the series, and their own fate by landing themselves into a Finals match-up with awaiting A Ball. The Cruisers came to play and threw the first hard punch, taking a commanding 24-14 lead after the 1st quarter as CB Liu and George Chan came out playing like the former MVPs that they are. Liu landed three treys in the opening quarter and GC had 8 points as he punished a thin Love lineup that was missing bigs Brian Liang and Daniel Liu (it’s habitual for these two to be out.) Shawn De Los Reyes kept Cali in it with 10 of their 14, and they needed every ounce of him as it took them until Q2 to warm up, particularly on defense as they talked themselves into a swarming amoeba zone defense the perplexed the Cruisers into just 6 points in the 2nd after their huge 1st. CB was shut down the rest of the way (11 opening period points and that was it), Eddie Wang never got on track, and GC and Tony Hu inside had to really earn theirs’ the entire way. With the long De Los Reyes and hawk like Nic Echevestre, though they were small, they covered lots of ground on defense and stayed in it, taking a 30-29 lead by the half.
Hu and Chan combined for 12 points in the 3rd and Wilson Wang, who wasn’t supposed to show up but was granted a pass to play by his loving girlfriend who is Love’s biggest fan, kept Cali keeping pace as he bagged a pair of 3’s for 8 period points to help Love keep their slim lead to start the 4th. The game, and the series, was anyone’s still at this juncture, but as it has been for the Cruisers this season – they finished with a pedestrian 4-4 record, their worst in DL history – the going got tough when it counted. The 4th is were legends are made and as if he weren’t already legendary enough, Echevestre, exploded for 15 points (on his way to a game high 28) as Love opened the frame 6/6 from the field to blow the hinges off the door. A 26 point NBA-type quarter, continued tough defense on Hu (15 pts, 3 stls) and Chan (17 pts, 7 rbs), and an icing on the cake 3-point play by Mike Won (9 pts, Cali needs him around and not having his car getting towed to leave them with just 4 as was the case in Game 1), set the celebration off with a couple minutes to go as Cali looked to kill. The is one of the rare times when the Cruisers were in it that they didn’t qualify to play for the chip. But, then, this is one of the rare times you’ll see De Los Reyes (21 pts, 7 rbs, 4 assts team with NicE (Ech is gone for good by the summer of 2010 back to Cali after he is done with law school.) They wanted to run together to see what kind of damage they could do. From the looks of it to this point, a lot. One more task ahead for Cali to get the chip they covet. It could have gone either way in this series and in many ways they are lucky to even be here. But they are deserving too because they are good. And as they say, sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cali Love | 14 | 15 | 14 | 26 | - | 69 |
| RL Cruisers | 24 | 6 | 14 | 14 | - | 58 |
Boxscore
| Cali Love - 69 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B, Danny | DNP | ||||||||||
| De Los Reyes, Shawn | 9 / 17 [0.529] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 2 / 7 [0.286] | 7 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 21 | |
| Echevestre, Nic | 8 / 15 [0.533] | 5 / 6 [0.833] | 7 / 8 [0.875] | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 28 | |
| Liang, Brian | DNP | ||||||||||
| Liu, Daniel | DNP | ||||||||||
| Uddeen, Jameel | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | |
| Wang, Wilson | 3 / 16 [0.188] | 2 / 11 [0.182] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 8 | |
| Won, Mike | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 9 | |
| Yang, Brian | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| 25 / 58 [0.431] | 8 / 23 [0.348] | 11 / 18 [0.611] | 32 | 15 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 12 | 69 | ||
| RL Cruisers - 58 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chan, George | 7 / 10 [0.700] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 / 5 [0.600] | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 17 | |
| Chu, Howard | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
| Chu, Leon | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Hu, Tony | 6 / 18 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 / 4 [0.750] | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 15 | |
| Liu, CB | 3 / 4 [0.750] | 3 / 4 [0.750] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | |
| Secharan, Roy | DNP | ||||||||||
| Wang, Eddie | 2 / 7 [0.286] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |
| Yeung, Stan | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 0 / 4 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 6 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | |
| Yu, Ian | 1 / 8 [0.125] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | |
| 22 / 61 [0.361] | 4 / 14 [0.286] | 10 / 15 [0.667] | 30 | 12 | 8 | 1 | 13 | 19 | 58 | ||
Referees
| Bobbie Lewis: | Rate Me |
| Lamont Long: | Rate Me |