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SKWD SECURES ANOTHER TITLE | | All-DL Honor Roll ANNOUNCED.
It was one of the smaller seasons in history, but in the end, it will go down as one of the greatest endings the DLNY has ever known.
While the DL rolled out a 5 team Open Division this season – for the first time allowing anyone of any background eligibility in the league, but in the process only carrying 5 squads – we watched as the 2 most deserving of the 5 teams battle to the near death in a two-game championship series that brought back shades of Cruisers-Ghee Unit from the 2006 Winter/Spring season in terms of competitive finals.
One player from that series over 4 years ago was also involved in this one as well and appropriately enough, it was a man who needs no introductions around here, having carved his reputation in stone as one of the most durable and talented players our game has ever known. He’s a regular come championship time.
No, we’re not speaking of AK Tewary, who was on that Ghee team that season, but didn’t make the finals presumably due to some bump or bruise he inevitably suffers every season.
Tony Hu was on the wrong end of the result in 2006 after Nik Nayak let fly with a 70 foot chip clinching prayer that found nothing but the bottom of the net in Game 2 of that series. He felt pangs of that series again when DB Reunion’s Mike Kim hit a game winner in OT to lift his team to a 74-73 win in Game 1 of this season’s chip, but made damned sure history would not repeat itself with yet another, well, Tony Hu-like performance of 22 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists in the series clinching Game 2 SKWD win.
If it seemed routine, it was, and yet, it was anything but.
It was routine in the sense that Hu had another Hu game (in that Game 2 loss against Ghee, he had 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 1 assist), but it wasn’t because, overall, the series that staked SK against DB was as electric as a live wire. When games, or chip series, are as close and filled with drama as this one was, they are anything but routine. Do we ever get tired of watching ridiculously awesome down-to-the-wire basketball? Dudes, it never gets old. Ever.
That this season Hu did it on SK was rich – for SK. A free agent once his RL Cruisers stayed shelved, Andre Liu, who has his ears closer to the rumor mill than the mill itself, signed Hu quickly for a season’s worth of coconut water and now, the rest is history.
Hu meshed so well with Mark Lee as the dynamic scoring options, Tewary in the post with their unstoppable hi-lo, the guard squadron of Ejay Aguillo, Ian Yu, and Mo Hoque (what guard doesn’t love being able to toss it into Hu?), and the silky smooth forwards Marc Palacios and Victor Lin that the entire team, many of whom were playing with each other for the first time, seemed as if they’d been together for years, especially after learning a lesson in losing their season opener.
 The secret to SK's success. |
From that loss against Cali Love, SK did not lose again the entire season until Game 1 of the Finals, a stretch of 9 games across 3 months that had them threatening to run away with this season a little too easily.
Which is why we must credit DB for making this thing a classic. We shoulda known after their two regular season games that were both also insta-classics. These teams played each other 4 times this season and all the games were settled by a combined 8 points. SK got the better of them 3 times, and when it mattered most, but watching them clash was a thing of beauty. Use the attached video as evidence.
So, another crown to SKWD and Tony Hu who are both certainly, around here anyways, larger than life. That they did it in a season with fewer teams than usual, well, hey, that doesn’t lessen the deed any. After all, good things come in small packages.
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