THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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Gummi Bears 67, Y Tu Mama Tambien 52 |
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Gummi Bears Chew Up #1 Seeded YTMT |
| The best athletes have a rare combination of qualities - skill, poise and the kind of moxie that says, When it's a huge game, I'm making the plays to win it. Dream League GM's go to the ends of the Tri-State Area to find players who have this gift, particularly when teams are evaluating the most important position on the court. No doubt about it, there's an it factor for point guards. Point guards who have it are natural leaders and play so well that you just say, "We'll win with this guy."
Wednesday night's matchup of top seeded YTMT and the 4th seeded Gummi Bears was a game that pitted two floor generals who have it. YTMT's Dave Scott, who was voted a first team All-Dream Leaguer and the Gummi Bears' Eric Wang, who was voted a 2nd Team All-Dream Leaguer would be paired up in a backcourt matchup that had the look of one for the ages. YTMT had defeated the Gummi Bears twice in the regular season - 52-42 in the season opener and 53-51 in a nailbiter on October 30th - but E-Dub did not suit up for either game. E-Dub has an alias - The Difference. At the onset of the season, prognosticators dubbed him such because it was felt that if he showed up for games, the Gummi Bears were as dangerous a team around to make a run at the title. If he didn't show, the team - while still talented - was lacking its floor leader and missing a large piece of their puzzle that could put them over the top. By the time this game was played and done, this highly anticipated matchup of title contenders and star point guards ended in a not so thrilling one sided fashion that saw the Gummi Bears brush aside the league's regular season champion 67-52, leaving YTMT to wonder if they were the victim of a conspiracy theory. Behind E-Dub, the Gummi Bears came out with a workmanlike attitude and jumped all over YTMT 9-0 before all the fans had settled in their seats. Dave Wong finally broke the ice for YTMT with a layup to make it 9-2, but the Gummi Bears took it to another level and went on another run - a 10-2 one to be exact - to go up 19-4 before YTMT finally took a time out during which the players just looked dazed and confused. They came back out and got two baskets in a row before the period ended 19-8. E-Dub scored 10 points as he clearly got the jump in the marquee matchup between he and Scott. The two - who play against each other frequently in off-season pickup games and other non-sanctioned tournaments have a mutual respect for one another, but on this night - E-Dub was dissin' his counterpart with his play. To make matters worse, Scott, who was coming off a game in which he was ejected from, was not only losing his battle with E-Dub, but felt he was losing a battle against the referees as well. It's no secret that some referees have a short whistle - or no whistle - when it comes to certain players. Vlade Divac can't bear to look when he sees Ron Garretson is calling one of his games. When Divac's Kings coach Rick Adelman had Steve Javy calling one of his games when they were playing the Lakers, Adelman knew he wasn't going to get one call going the Kings way as far as Shaq was concerned. Some players and coaches just feel that some referees have it in for them. Players on YTMT feel this way about referee Joe Thompson. Could fallout exist due to an incident between players and referee earlier in the season? "I don't want to feel like I'm playing against two opponents when I'm out there," said Scott after the game. After being whistled for a foul in the second quarter in which he felt wasn't one, Scott went to the bench and his team started to mount a comeback. Wong and Young Yu combined for 12 points as they outscored the Gummi Bears 20-14 in the quarter to cut the margin to 33-28 by the half. E-Dub went into assist mode during the quarter as he found teammates wide open for timely jumpers they converted that kept YTMT just enough at bay as they were storming back. Alex Lien tickled the twine twice from outside and David Lee bagged a three as well as the Gummi Bears kept burning YTMT from outside. Despite the poor start to the game and tenuous ground in which they were playing on with regards to what some players felt was a bias, YTMT had battled back to make it a game. They came out in the 2nd half and promptly handed it right back to the Gummi Bears. Or the Gummi Bears took it back, rather. Or, if you will believe YTMT, it was taken from them by forces out of their control - the zebras. However it was done, the Gummi Bears got back the momentum YTMT had built up in the 2nd quarter displaying a cohesiveness that has to make them one of the odds on favorites to reach the championship if they continue to play this way. While they showed their range in the first half, draining jumpers from all over the court, their interior game started to materialize more in the 2nd half. Jiang Yu and Mark Kiang combined for 17 2nd half points and worked the boards hard such that they both wound up with double doubles for the game - Yu 16 and 10 and Kiang 12 and 10. They outscored YTMT 18-10 in the 3rd to stretch the lead to 51-38. During this period, Scott, who finally got on the board with a couple of jumpers, was whistled for a flagrant foul on E-Dub who was going to the hole. Speechless, Scott simply walked off the court to never return to the game. "I know Eric. I play against him all the time. We're friends. I'd never commit a flagrant on him. I don't know what he (the ref) has against me, but he's totally biased against me. I know he has it in for me." Without Scott and with the fire and desire within them flickering, YTMT could not mount any comeback from that point on and the Gummi Bears took no prisoners in finishing off YTMT in the 4th to put the #1 seed's backs against the wall now as they cannot afford to lose again before being eliminated from the playoffs. The Gummi Bears, who are looking well oiled and primped for a long run in the postseason will continue to look towards E-Dub's leadership to carry them. Not only does he bring his talents to the game, but as evidenced by this performance he turned in, he raises his teammates' play as well. E-Dub finished with 15 points, 5 dimes, and 4 steals. Lien finished with 9 points. Jonathan Guilfoile scored 7 and had 3 boards. They move on to the semi-finals next week against defending champion Da Bien. YTMT heads into the loser's bracket and will face the winner of the Tri-State vs. Oh Holla! game next week. Wong led YTMT with 14 points and 4 rebounds and both Yusik Choi and Yu scored 10 and collected 8 rebounds each in the defeat. After the game, a battered and befuddled looking Yu commented, "We got our butts handed to us tonight. We would have lost regardless of officials or not. But there's no doubt that everything will be called against us if we have games called by certain officials. The league needs to look into this." It will. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gummi Bears | 19 | 14 | 18 | 16 | - | 67 |
| Y Tu Mama Tambien | 8 | 20 | 10 | 14 | - | 52 |
Boxscore
| Gummi Bears - 67 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guilfoile, Jonathan | 3 / 8 [0.375] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | |
| Han, Andrew | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| Hsieh, Jeff | DNP | ||||||||||
| Kiang, Mark | 6 / 12 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 12 | |
| Lee, David | 1 / 5 [0.200] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Lee, Tommy | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Lien, Alex | 4 / 6 [0.667] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9 | |
| Wang, Eric | 5 / 15 [0.333] | 1 / 3 [0.333] | 4 / 5 [0.800] | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 15 | |
| Yu, Jiang | 7 / 16 [0.438] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 / 6 [0.500] | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 17 | |
| 28 / 65 [0.431] | 4 / 9 [0.444] | 7 / 11 [0.636] | 29 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 13 | 11 | 67 | ||
| Y Tu Mama Tambien - 52 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ang, Ark | DNP | ||||||||||
| Choi, Yusik | 4 / 9 [0.444] | 2 / 3 [0.667] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 8 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 10 | |
| Kim, James | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Scott, Dave | 2 / 6 [0.333] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | |
| Wong, David | 6 / 11 [0.545] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 14 | |
| Won Yi, Chun | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Wu, Eric | DNP | ||||||||||
| Yang, Brian | 5 / 6 [0.833] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 3 / 6 [0.500] | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 13 | |
| Yu, Young | 4 / 10 [0.400] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 8 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 10 | |
| 21 / 46 [0.457] | 3 / 8 [0.375] | 7 / 12 [0.583] | 29 | 8 | 11 | 1 | 15 | 11 | 52 | ||