THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
|
Oakland Rams 52, Touchless 50 |
||
|
Rams Hold Off Touchless, but Ross Lim Injures Knee | ||
| Scott Narasaki drives from the deep right baseline for the Rams' game-winning bucket. | ||
AUGUST 11, 2004 -- In a foul-plagued and turnover-ridden affair, the #1 Rams held off #3 Touchless to force a repeat championship in the double-elimination playoff brackets. It was the first time in the AL's brief four-season history that we've been forced to a repeat final. Bill Truong of the Rams led all scorers with 18 pts 11 reb 4 blk. Ryan Lim picked up the slack after brother Ross Lim went down with a knee injury during the 3rd quarter. Ross tried to return to the game, but the knee could not hold up and he was forced to sit. His status is improbable for this Sunday's repeat final. The Rams were up 48-40 late in the 4th quarter on a layup feed from Jameel Uddeen to Truong, but then Touchless initiated pressure defense and without Lim, the Rams had trouble getting shots off. With the score 50-42, Touchless's Menh Voong attacked the right baseline, spun, and made a dazzling layup to cut the lead to 50-44. After a few exchanges of ugly turnovers, Phuong Hong, who erupted for two field goals earlier in the quarter, took a quick dribble drive left past Kevin Le and thanks to a screen by Bernard Washington, to cut the lead to 50-46. Hong then stole the inbounds pass and found Alan Lam, who fed Solomon Soo Hoo, Touchless's leading scorer with 12 pts, open beyond the arc and he nailed the three to trim the lead to 50-49 with just under 2 minutes left. Uddeen managed to break the ensuing press with a deep court pass to Scott Narasaki for layup, only to be denied at the last possible moment by a swat from Bernard Washington. Touchless marched down the court, with Hong ready for another penetration through the heart of the Rams defense, and finding Soo wide open from downtown on the right side, but he could not find the hot hand! Ryan Lim grabbed the critical rebound. With the Touchless pressure defense up high, Narasaki found himself an open lane on the right baseline and made a clutch layup to put the Rams up for good. Soo got the ball with the shot clock winding down, drove hard down the middle and was fouled by Ryan Lim. Luckily for the Rams, it was only their first team foul in the last 2:00, and Soo had to sit after receiving a charlie-horse on the play. Uddeen then tipped the ball away on an errant pass by Voong, but then Hong once again got a hand on the ball and Uddeen ended up fouling him. Hong made only one of two free throws to cut the lead to 52-50, and on the second miss, Washington got the rebound but could not hit the layup from point-blank range. Hong somehow got Washington's miss, but blew another point-blanker. Only about 38 ticks were left on the clock by then. Touchless played perfect defense on the next possession and forced a 24-second shot clock violation. As time wound down during Touchless's last chance with 14 seconds left, Hong once again drove past the Rams' defense, only to met by a subtle blocked shot by Uddeen, and time ran out and the Rams escaped with the victory. Now Touchless becomes the underdog as the higher-seed Rams regain home-court advantage. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oakland Rams | 12 | 17 | 12 | 11 | - | 52 |
| Touchless | 15 | 10 | 10 | 15 | - | 50 |
Boxscore
| Oakland Rams - 52 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gusner, Karl | DNP | ||||||||||
| Le, Kevin | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | |
| Lim, Ross | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | |
| Lim, Ryan | 4 / 13 [0.308] | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 13 | |
| Narasaki, Scott | 2 / 7 [0.286] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Thai, Jon | DNP | ||||||||||
| Truong, Bill | 7 / 9 [0.778] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 / 8 [0.500] | 11 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 18 | |
| Uddeen, Jameel | 4 / 10 [0.400] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 9 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 | |
| 20 / 48 [0.417] | 2 / 10 [0.200] | 10 / 20 [0.500] | 32 | 7 | 12 | 5 | 19 | 18 | 52 | ||
| Touchless - 50 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deng, Doug | 0 / 4 [0.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 3 / 4 [0.750] | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Hong, Phuong | 4 / 11 [0.364] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 10 | |
| Lam, Alan (dup) | 4 / 4 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 10 | |
| Soo Hoo, Solomon | 2 / 7 [0.286] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 7 / 8 [0.875] | 7 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 12 | |
| Sun, James | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Tom, Aaron | DNP | ||||||||||
| Tran, Darren | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Tran, Gary | 3 / 9 [0.333] | 1 / 4 [0.250] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | |
| Voong, Menh | 3 / 5 [0.600] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 6 | |
| Washington, Bernard | 1 / 8 [0.125] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | |
| Yuen, Dennis | DNP | ||||||||||
| 17 / 52 [0.327] | 2 / 10 [0.200] | 14 / 24 [0.583] | 24 | 6 | 14 | 7 | 16 | 16 | 50 | ||