THE DREAM LEAGUE
National Basketball Tournaments
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South Bay Shootout (SJ) 69, Dream League All-Stars 55 |
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Lack of Depth Hurts DLAS as Shootout Advances |
| Shootout's Big Three Scores 56 of 69 Points September 10, 2006 LAS VEGAS, NV -- With two-time LVI MVP shooting guard Karl Gusner gone home to see his girlfriend off to London, former LVI all-star 6'5" center Brian Liang departed back to his new home in NYC, and utility man Yuki Yamazaki hung over from a night at the poker tables, on paper it looked like the Dream League All-Stars would have to dig down deep to stop dynamic trio of Shootout's Jojo Pierce (#8), Ryan Mateo (#22) and Bobby Hernandez (#24). As it turned out, Shootout big man T.J. Hawkins (#7) filled up the scoring column in place of the streaky Hernandez, but it didn't matter as the DLAS defense failed to stop the onslaught. Hawkins turned Shootout into a more traditional balanced attack of outside-inside instead of the gunslinging from beyond the arc with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Liang was sorely missed as the DLAS' Jonny Corrao (#6) and Yih-Wei Chien (#00) each gave up at least 4 inches and more in wingspan to the 6'4" Hawkins. Mateo lit it up with 20 points on 4-for-9 from downtown and Pierce also had 20, with 7-for-8 from the line. Shootout went a combined 16-for-20 from the free throw stripe. Shootout took a 19-18 first quarter lead and extended it to 40-29 by halftime and never looked back. Without Gusner, the DLAS offense sputtered. Huy Nguyen (#8) scored 21 points, but Mike Kraus (#50) added a sub-par 10 on just 4-for-13 from the field, with only 4 rebounds. The same deficiencies which crippled the DLAS in their first round LVI loss to Arizona came back to haunt them. Starting point-forward Jameel Uddeen (#33) scored just two points and the bench barely cracked double digits with 12 points combined. The LVI-AANC output for the DLAS was good and bad. Their handy defeats of Alpine and the Tigers Blue in the LVI were impressive, but their 6-point victory against the well over-matched Hawaii Phenoms, the 21-point turnaround in a 7-point loss to Arizona, and a rather large 14-point loss to Shootout exposed some glaring weaknesses, notwithstanding the absence of Gusner. There seems to be quite a chink the armor following last year's December Gold Rush run, in which they tore through the field, as well as the stranglehold championship over the Pac Boast Barons in May in Sacramento. As with the Detroit Pistons, the ameoba team defense seems to be a thing of the past. The DLAS will need to play more together throughout the year if they hope to reclaim their achievements of not so long ago. Meanwhile, Shootout merely showed off their 500-horsepower engine. If a cylinder isn't clicking like Hernandez or Seve Nocon (#21), who finished with 0 points, usually it doesn't matter. Pierce, Mateo, Hawkins, and Dennis Jimenez (#20) will do what it takes to pickup the slack. Shootout advanced to play against Driven in the semifinals. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dream League All-Stars | 18 | 11 | 13 | 13 | - | 55 |
| South Bay Shootout (SJ) | 19 | 21 | 11 | 18 | - | 69 |
Boxscore
| Dream League All-Stars - 55 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrao, Jonny | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 4 [0.000] | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | |
| Gusner, Karl | DNP | ||||||||||
| Kraus, Michael | 4 / 13 [0.308] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | |
| Liang, Brian | DNP | ||||||||||
| Lim, Ross | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 6 | |
| Liu, Johnny | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | |
| Luu, Jimmy | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | |
| Nguyen, Huy | 9 / 21 [0.429] | 3 / 5 [0.600] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 21 | |
| Susanto, Ryan | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| Uddeen, Jameel | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| Yamazaki, Yuki | DNP | ||||||||||
| 22 / 51 [0.431] | 5 / 13 [0.385] | 6 / 15 [0.400] | 21 | 12 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 12 | 55 | ||
| South Bay Shootout (SJ) - 69 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawkins, T.J. | 6 / 7 [0.857] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 11 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 16 | |
| Hernandez, Bobby (#2) | 0 / 4 [0.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | |
| Jimenez, Dennis (#20) | 5 / 6 [0.833] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 9 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 12 | |
| Mateo, Ryan (#22) | 7 / 14 [0.500] | 4 / 9 [0.444] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 20 | |
| Nocon, Seve | 0 / 5 [0.000] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | |
| Phengthirath, Doe (#3) | DNP | ||||||||||
| Pierce, JoJo (#8) | 6 / 11 [0.545] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 7 / 8 [0.875] | 9 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 20 | |
| Pinoliar, Juancho (#24) | DNP | ||||||||||
| 24 / 47 [0.511] | 5 / 17 [0.294] | 16 / 20 [0.800] | 36 | 14 | 6 | 3 | 13 | 13 | 69 | ||