Season 1: Fall 2004 Campaign

The inaugural season for The Tri-State InvAsian was successful and utterly jammed with heart-stopping excitement. Led by the dynamic, high-scoring All-Everything superstar Marshall Cho at shooting guard, the InvAsian went all the way to the semifinals before bowing out to the well-established franchise YTMT, 69-61. Despite Marshall's double-double (17 pts, 10 rebs) the InvAsian were unable to stop the rampaging ("You can't stop me, I'm too big! TOO BIG!") Young Yu from scoring at will. Nonetheless it was one hell of a game, as the team came out smoking in the first quarter, scoring 25 points with Swishy going a perfect 5-5 from the field. The intensity continued in the second period, as the InvAsian went into halftime leading the favored YTMT by a score of 40-33. The toll of playing its second game of the afternoon (having beaten Oh Holla! just an

The 2004 Tri-State InvAsian

hour prior) soon proved to be costly, as the collective gas tank began to runneth dry in the second half. The rest of the game was a blur of Young Yu beating his chest after scoring on yours truly, so the description ends mercifully right here.

The season itself was highlighted by two spectacular wins over Oh Holla! On November 4th, Marshall led a supporting cast that was missing #2 scorer and top rebounder Swishy Rassiwalla; Marsh simply caught fire and never cooled off. With the whole gym expecting it, he called for the ball with the game tied and the clock running down, drove baseline against three defenders and made an impossible, spectacular shot while being fouled. Eruption! Ball game! His performance was probably the best individual effort of any player that season – 32 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 7-10 from beyond the arc.

A month later, in the quarterfinals of the playoffs, the InvAsian and Oh Holla! had their much-anticipated rematch. This time, Brian Yang and Stanley Yeung seemed determined to erase the past, as they outplayed the InvAsian for three quarters. Leading by a seemingly-insurmountable 53-40 score, the legend of Marshall Cho would once again grow as he proceeded to go 5-6 from the field in the fourth, plus 4-4 from the charity stripe for a remarkable 14-point quarter.

2004 Season Results
Date	Opponent	Score
September 22	Da Bien	L 70-44
September 29	Retros	W 49-36
October 6	Mo Betta Ballers	L 69-62
October 13	Gen X	W 55-44
October 20	Wolverines	W 44-36
November 3	Oh Holla!	W 54-52
November 10	A ball 34	W 48-34
November 17	Gen X	W 52-39
December 1	Da Bien	L 65-50
December 8	Oh Holla!	W 66-61
December 8	Y Tu Mama Tambien	L 69-61

Led by defensive stalwart Felix Shen, the team also played its most disruptive defensive quarter, stripping the ball repeatedly from Oh Holla’s guards, picking off passes, grabbing loose balls. When the smoke cleared, Oh Holla! looked completely flabbergasted as their big lead had completely evaporated, outscored by the InvAsian 26-8! Unlike the 11/4 contest, this game was more of a group effort; supporting Marshall’s 28 points, Swishy recorded a double-double with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Big Ray had 12 huge boards and Felix recorded 8 points and at least 4 steals (seemed more like 14 to me).

Although the season ended with a disappointing loss, it nonetheless exceeded preseason expectations. More importantly, it drew a random group of players together and created a tightly-knit squad that promises to stay together through thick and thin, ignoring the allure of free agency. Teammates became friends and the future is bright, let the InvAsian continue unabated!

Individual Honors

Marshall Cho (G): All-League First Team, All-League Defensive Second Team, Uptown Conference First Team, Week 7 UTC Player of the Week, led the league in assists (3.5 apg), second in the league in scoring (19.6 ppg), third in the league in steals (2.7 spg), selected to the All-Star Game.

Swishy Rassiwalla (F): Uptown Conference Second Team, selected to the All-Star Game.

Felix Shen (G): led the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.00), second in the league in assists (3.4 apg), sixth in 3-point shooting percentage (.357), selected to the All-Star Game.

Ray Lieu (F): third in the league in FG percentage (.571).

PLAYER	GP	FGs	FG %	3PTs	3PT %	FTs	FT %	REB	R/G	AST	A/G
Cho, Marshall	11	68 / 197	.345	27 / 102	.265	53 / 73	.726	58	5.3	38	3.5
Rassiwalla, Sabir	9	49 / 110	.445	9 / 29	.310	7 / 19	.368	69	7.7	7	0.8
Liu, Andre	11	35 / 103	.340	3 / 20	.150	15 / 29	.517	57	5.2	7	0.6
Shen, Felix	11	22 / 53	.415	10 / 28	.357	2 / 6	.333	22	2.0	37	3.4
Lieu, Ray	11	20 / 35	.571	0 / 0	.000	7 / 21	.333	73	6.6	5	0.5
Oh, Albert	6	10 / 34	.294	2 / 13	.154	0 / 0	.000	14	2.3	6	1.0
Cho, Hoon	2	3 / 11	.273	1 / 7	.143	0 / 0	.000	6	3.0	1	0.5
Chao, Gin	7	9 / 27	.333	0 / 0	.000	5 / 10	.500	12	1.7	5	0.7
Shiomi, Eddie	1	1 / 3	.333	0 / 0	.000	0 / 0	.000	1	1.0	0	0.0
Yu, Eric	11	5 / 18	.278	0 / 0	.000	0 / 0	.000	15	1.4	1	0.1

PLAYER	STL	S/G	BLK	B/G	TO	T/G	PF	F/G	PTS	P/G
Cho, Marshall	30	2.7	2	0.2	38	3.5	32	2.9	216	19.6
Rassiwalla, Sabir	6	0.7	3	0.3	17	1.9	37	4.1	114	12.7
Liu, Andre	10	0.9	3	0.3	27	2.5	35	3.2	88	8.0
Shen, Felix	23	2.1	0	0.0	27	2.5	19	1.7	56	5.1
Lieu, Ray	10	0.9	3	0.3	21	1.9	22	2.0	47	4.3
Oh, Albert	4	0.7	1	0.2	10	1.7	11	1.8	22	3.7
Cho, Hoon	1	0.5	0	0.0	1	0.5	1	0.5	7	3.5
Chao, Gin	1	0.1	2	0.3	10	1.4	11	1.6	23	3.3
Shiomi, Eddie	1	1.0	0	0.0	1	1.0	1	1.0	2	2.0
Yu, Eric	3	0.3	0	0.0	6	0.5	8	0.7	10	0.9