WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS
JEFFREY HSIEH ON TARGET AS WHITE WINS SERIES 4-1 OVER GRAY

EDISON (HP) Amid predictions of thundershowers, HBA staff, players, and fans faithfully attended the final week of the HBA Summer League season. Excitement and anticipation were in the air as Gray team and White team warmed up for what was hoped (and hyped) to be a great best of seven series.

Game 1 pitted White’s “big three” of Jeremy Doodanauth, Jeff Hsieh, and Neeraj Patel against Gray’s Andy Ni, Rondeep Dutta, and Tim Chang. Gray struggled right away as Ni and Dutta were unable to hit shots, relying on Chang to provide most of the offense. White, on the other hand, was hot right from the start. Gray, which relies on its flow of passing to warm up its offense took too long and immediately found themselves quickly down 1-0 as White had assists on nine of their eleven baskets.

Game 2 was played under a rapidly darkening sky. Patel sat out and John Tso came off the bench for White while Gray went with their smaller lineup of Ni, Chang, and Yi Fu Wu. Chang hit many shots in the beginning of the game, as Gray led 10-6 at one point and looked to even the series. White rallied and tied the game with some clutch jumpers by Hsieh, and the game went into overtime. Each shot was heavily contested, with Gray reaching game-point many times. Ni had the potential game winner on a lay up, but called foul beforehand, negating the basket. Hsieh continued to hit jumpers to tie the game until John Tso, at the time 0-8 from the field, scored his only point of the series to give White a game-point. Hsieh hit the jumper to win it 16-14 in five overtimes.

Game 2 was a classic, but it exhausted the Gray team and shattered their confidence. They had planned to capitalize and win the two mandatory games when the “big three” were not on the court, and had just blown their first opportunity. Had the series continued, it would have probably been a sweep, but the skies opened up and rain poured down on Hidden Park. Players retreated underneath the trees and into their cars in a frantic attempt to keep themselves, their cell phones, cameras, and the vital stat sheets dry.

It rained for almost twenty minutes, but players remained at or near Hidden Park, hopeful that the rain would stop. Amid the rain, a classic HBA knockout game was played, with Neeraj Patel’s younger brother easily beating out more seasoned HBA veteran players. Two more play stoppages later, Game 3 finally took place on a rain-soaked court. The decrease in game speed played into Gray’s advantage. Gray’s Ni, Dutta, and Chang pulled out a close, sloppy game against Doodanauth, Hsieh, and Patel that featured many turnovers and drives in slow motion. Patel struggled as he only shot 1 for 11 in that game, but Hsieh’s hot shooting kept the game close, with a final score of 11-7 Gray.

Game 4 was pivotal for Gray. They had upset the big three and were poised to even up the series. Gray’s big lineup of Ni, Dutta, and Suarez created match up problems for White, most notably for Jason Fan, who gave up a good fifty pounds to Suarez. However, Gray was unable to capitalize on the mismatches, as Hsieh somehow sank almost every shot he took to propel White team to victory, shooting an amazing 10-18 with a slippery, water-logged ball. It was only the second ten-point performance ever recorded in HBA history, the other by Hsieh’s teammate Jeremy Doodanauth during the regular season.

While the wet court slowed down the slashing style of play offered by Patel and Doodanauth, it was ideal for Hsieh, who was able to capitalize on the delayed reaction of his defenders and get enough separation for open shots. The Gray team, dejected and down 3-1, was unable to muster much resistance as the big three rolled right through Game 5 to win the series 4-1.

The trophies were presented immediately afterwards to the champion White team. Hsieh was undoubtedly the best player in the finals, but the league MVP went to Neeraj Patel, who was the catalyst of White team’s rise from last to second place during the regular season. It was unfortunate that crowd favorite and Cinderella story Gray team’s run at the championship ended, but the White team was a deserving winner as they simply outplayed Gray. (HP)