THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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Y Tu Mama Tambien 49, Gummi Bears 43 |
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YTMT TKOs Gummi Bears |
| The rivalry that developed within the season between YTMT and the Gummi Bears was like a boxing match within the season itself. They had met three times prior to last night's semi-final matchup, each quarter played between these two teams was akin to a round within the match with the teams having been in a dead even tie according to the judges' scorecards with each team winning 6 rounds - er, quarters - a piece. If the first 12 quarters in the 3 games didn't determine anything, neither did last night's game. Each team won two quarters each again, but it was YTMT that scored the TKO as they won the overall war by eliminating the Gummi Bears from the playoffs 49-43.
From the start, the Gummi Bears' looked like they might be at an advantage as All League guard Dave Scott and frontcourtmen Paul Kim and Yusik Choi, as well as guard Eric Wu were all out for YTMT. Wu sat out with the flu while Scott and Kim were being retained at the league offices for reasons still being investigated. Choi was lost, presumably somewhere in Mexico. When the ball tipped off, the advantage was indeed pounced upon. By YTMT. YTMT, refusing to keel over and die although key components were missing, came out fired up in a 2-3 amoeba zone defense designed to prevent Jiang Yu from getting easy looks inside and daring the outside players to hit jumpers to beat them. It worked to perfection at the beginning. Jiang was only able to muscle in 2 points from in close as Young Yu worked the middle of the backline zone to continually distract entry passers and Jiang in the process. The Gummi Bears guards outside of Eric Wang were unable to get on track either. Wang had 4 points as the team collectively scored 9 to YTMT's 20. The 11 point lead was built up largerly in part to Young as he scooped up 7 points, including 5 in a row at one point that put his team up 15-6. With only 5 players suited up, YTMT sagged a bit in the 2nd quarter and came out flat on D. Jonathan Guilfoile took advantage of this and scored 6 of the Gummi Bears' 10 points in the frame. Jiang was again held without a basket despite the conscious effort on his teammates' part to feed the post. Meanwhile, YTMT found the well empty for the most part and only could muster 6 points in the quarter, 4 of which Dave Wong scored. YTMT went into the half with a tenuous 26-19 lead while starting to experience fatigue without any sort of substitution patterns available. YTMT got back on track after recess as Young bagged a pair of triples and Wong scored 4 points. The Gummi Bears tried to claw back into the game as 5 different players scored in the quarter for them. Guilfoile, Mark Kiang, David Lee, and E-Dub all scored field goals while Jiang was held to a single free throw as he was thrwarted each time inside the key on shot attempts. Without anyone in particular getting hot or stepping up, time was running out on the Gummi Bears even as they were pulling closer. When they pulled to 34-28 on Guilfoile's basket, Chun Won Yi got a bucket and Wong hit a pair of free throws to send the game into the 4th period up double digits at 38-28. The 10 point lead proved to be too much for the Gummi Bears as they had to contend with what turned into the Young-Wong Show. E-Dub led a charge back into the game getting 8 points in the quarter as he regularly pentrated in for easy baskets or to draw a foul. However, Young and Wong put the clamps down as Young scored 6 and Wong had 5 points to do all the decisive quarter scoring and shooting (no field goal attempts by any other player) for YTMT. The two went 5-13 in the period. Towards the end of the quarter, Wong collided with a loose elbow and immediately started to gush blood profusely from his lip. When the average man would have gone to the hospital at this point, Wong courageously stayed in the game after taping his lip up with athletic tape to staunch the heavy bleeding. Even after this, YTMT was able to hang on and outlast the Gummi Bears to snag the victory and advance to the finals where they are set to face the defending champion Da Bien. Young Yu led all scorers with 19 points in the contest. He also had 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Wong notched 15 points, 5 boards, 7 dimes, and 3 steals despite the cut lip. Yi contributed with 4 points and 5 boards. E-Dub led the Gummi Bears with 16 points and 6 dimes while Jiang Yu was hassled into scoring just 5 points despite cleaning up 17 boards. Guilfoile had 8 points and 4 boards, Lee 7 had points and Kiang the same number of rebounds. |
Score by Quarters
| Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | OT | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Y Tu Mama Tambien | 20 | 6 | 12 | 11 | - | 49 |
| Gummi Bears | 9 | 10 | 9 | 15 | - | 43 |
Boxscore
| Y Tu Mama Tambien - 49 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ang, Ark | 1 / 6 [0.167] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | |
| Choi, Yusik | DNP | ||||||||||
| Kim, James | DNP | ||||||||||
| Scott, Dave | DNP | ||||||||||
| Wong, David | 6 / 17 [0.353] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 3 / 3 [1.000] | 5 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 15 | |
| Won Yi, Chun | 2 / 5 [0.400] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Wu, Eric | DNP | ||||||||||
| Yang, Brian | 2 / 5 [0.400] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 2 / 2 [1.000] | 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |
| Yu, Young | 8 / 21 [0.381] | 3 / 11 [0.273] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 19 | |
| 19 / 54 [0.352] | 4 / 15 [0.267] | 7 / 7 [1.000] | 28 | 14 | 10 | 2 | 16 | 8 | 49 | ||
| Gummi Bears - 43 | |||||||||||
| Player | FG | 3PT | FT | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | F | PTS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guilfoile, Jonathan | 4 / 11 [0.364] | 0 / 1 [0.000] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 8 | |
| Han, Andrew | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Hsieh, Jeff | DNP | ||||||||||
| Kiang, Mark | 2 / 4 [0.500] | 1 / 1 [1.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 5 | |
| Lee, David | 3 / 5 [0.600] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | |
| Lee, Tommy | 0 / 4 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Lien, Alex | 1 / 6 [0.167] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 0 / 0 [0.000] | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Wang, Eric | 6 / 18 [0.333] | 0 / 3 [0.000] | 4 / 4 [1.000] | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 16 | |
| Yu, Jiang | 2 / 10 [0.200] | 0 / 2 [0.000] | 1 / 2 [0.500] | 17 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | |
| 18 / 58 [0.310] | 2 / 11 [0.182] | 5 / 8 [0.625] | 33 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 17 | 8 | 43 | ||