THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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New York Fury 74, M&A 101 71 |
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Fury Outlast 101 | |
| Christian Stevens Scorches | |
| November 8, 2007 – New York, NY (DL) – Let’s get one thing clear. The New York Fury are a very good team. Let’s get another thing clear. The New York Fury yap as good as they play. In surviving an upset bid by M&A 101 on Thursday, 74-71, the 3rd seeded Fury demonstrated that they have the talent to go far. The only thing that may go further than their talent are the words coming out of their mouths. These guys can talk. All night.
In the past, Shawn de los Reyes, the Fury’s obscenely athletic swingman has had his basketball talents held in the highest esteem, glorified with MVP awards and championship titles. And rightly so. From here on out, recognize too that de los Reyes is one of the biggest complainers in the DL. All the greats do it. All the greats – from MJ, to Kobe, to Gilbert Arenas – whine as good as they play. They feel as if they deserve calls when plays don’t go their way. As well, everybody thinks it. Everybody thinks that when they are losing, or when calls go against them, there is a conspiracy against them and that they’re being cheated of fair play. In this X-Box/trash-talkin’/wifi/high-wire/SportsCenter society we live in in which we feel things are owed us just because, maybe we’ve been bred to think a certain way, act out a certain way, or talk a certain way when it comes to playing sports. Whatever happened to the days when people just shut their trap and played the game? When sportsmanship weighed more than verbosity? When respecting the game meant respecting your opponent? Those days are done. They’ve been done since the early 90’s. The Fury, a product of their generation, overcame an impressive start by 101’s Wilson Wang, a 37-year old product of the old school, who hit his first five 3-pointers of the game as 101 raced to a 22-16 lead after one and held a 42-37 lead at halftime. Wang had 20 1st half points and Usama Nausrudeen pitched in 3 3’s in the 2nd as 101 had the Fury on their heels a bit. Were it not for Christian Stevens, who came to play, the Fury may have been knocked out early. Stevens put down 12 points in the opening half to pace the Fury and Ren Hsieh added 10, but the Fury were furious. As 101 kept it up in the 3rd with Wang and Nausrudeen adding another 3 each, and Mo Ghumman (13 pts, 15 rbs) adding 6, the Fury fell behind by 62-51 as the 4th started, and this is when they really came back – with their game – and their mouths. With de los Reyes (19 pts, 7 rbs) calling for a foul every time he touched the ball, with Hsieh (12 pts, 3 assts) chiming in with how he felt the officials were robbing them with questionable calls as if the Commish had something to do with it, with Chris Youn (13 pts, 7 rbs, 6 assts, 4 stls) barking about how unflattering 101’s game was, the Fury rattled 101 and stormed back into the game. 101 looked done as each possession became a chore to try and score, unlike in the first 3 quarters when they shot 45%. Wang, who tallied 26 points and 5 steals, scored just a point in the 4th. Ghumman too only had a point. And Nausrudeen (24 pts, 6 assts, 3 stls) was held in check. As a team, 101 went 2 of 13 in the money quarter. Meanwhile, the Fury ate it up. Chirping like the Baltimore Raven defense, the Fury went 9 of 20 from the floor to give themselves the 3-point lead with 1.2 seconds left. Stevens, who led all scorers with 28 points to go with 11 rebounds and 2 blocks, led them with 12 points in the 4th. And interestingly, he did it without saying a word. It’s always the ones who let their game do the talking that impress the most, isn’t it? Meanwhile, 101 actually had one last ditch effort to send this game into OT as they had possession at half-court with an inbounds after a timeout with a second and change left. A play designed for Wang to get the ball back after he inbounded was thwarted as the Fury flanked him and the ball wound up in Brian Yang’s hands. In a moment of brain-freeze, or should we say brian-freeze, Yang, who couldn’t get the ball to Wang, looked like he didn’t know what to do. As the last tenth of second ticked away, he threw up the ugliest looking attempt at the basket mankind has ever known. Nausrudeen, the second 3-point option was miffed, 101 fell to the loser’s bracket while the Fury, feeling vindicated, marched on towards their date with the Cruisers in the next round. We’re not saying talking all that jive is wrong, Fury. After all, someone’s got to play the role of the bad boys. Whatever you do however, please, please don’t think there’s a conspiracy against you. You guys are too good for that. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M&A 101 | 22 | 20 | 20 | 9 | - | 71 |
| New York Fury | 16 | 21 | 14 | 23 | - | 74 |
Boxscore
| M&A 101 - 71 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asato, Hiro | DNP | ||||||||||
| Ghumman, Mo | 5 / 19 [0.263] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 / 6 [0.500] | 15 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 13 | |
| James, Tommy | DNP | ||||||||||
| Kamdang, Len | 2 / 5 [0.400] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
| Leung, Chuck | 2 / 11 [0.182] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |
| Liang, Brian | DNP | ||||||||||
| Nausrudeen, Usama | 8 / 14 [0.571] | 5 / 8 [0.625] | 3 / 4 [0.750] | 6 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 24 | |
| Parekh, Ram | DNP | ||||||||||
| Sun, Brian | DNP | ||||||||||
| Ueno, Jeremy | DNP | ||||||||||
| Wang, Wilson | 9 / 16 [0.563] | 6 / 8 [0.750] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 5 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 26 | |
| Yang, Brian | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| 26 / 66 [0.394] | 11 / 20 [0.550] | 8 / 14 [0.571] | 29 | 18 | 10 | 1 | 9 | 12 | 71 | ||
| New York Fury - 74 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chang, Rich | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 | |
| Chung, Albert | DNP | ||||||||||
| Chung, Harris | DNP | ||||||||||
| De Leon, Andrew | DNP | ||||||||||
| De Los Reyes, Shawn | 7 / 12 [0.583] | 3 / 6 [0.500] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 19 | |
| Hsieh, Ren | 5 / 11 [0.455] | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 12 | |
| Li, James | DNP | ||||||||||
| Meonske, Ming | DNP | ||||||||||
| Moon, Phil | DNP | ||||||||||
| Moy, Jeff | DNP | ||||||||||
| Redhead, Roger | DNP | ||||||||||
| Song, Peter | DNP | ||||||||||
| Stevens, Christian | 13 / 28 [0.464] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 11 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 28 | |
| Wang, Alvin | DNP | ||||||||||
| Yeh, Young | DNP | ||||||||||
| Youn, Chris | 3 / 9 [0.333] | 3 / 5 [0.600] | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 7 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 13 | |
| Zheng, Dave | DNP | ||||||||||
| 29 / 65 [0.446] | 9 / 21 [0.429] | 7 / 12 [0.583] | 32 | 16 | 6 | 2 | 16 | 14 | 74 | ||
Referees
| Sean Fincher: | Rate Me |
| Lamont Long: | Rate Me |