Yeshiva League Roundup
Derech Hatorah loses to HANC, 73–48. Derech Hatorah could not overcome HANC’s tenacious full-court press and never really got out of the starting gate. Adam Motovich put on a show, scoring most of his 27 points in the second half. He was backed up by Maurice Amar with 8 points in 3 quarters after fouling out in the beginning of the fourth. HANC was led by Gurarie with 22 points, and three players with 12—Livi, Baer, and Levine.
MDY 71, Rambam 53. Rambam opened up a 20–4 lead in the first quarter. MDY recovered a bit by ending the first half only down 13, 34–21. After halftime, MDY finally woke up, outscoring Rambam 49–19 in the second half to pull away. MDY top scorers were Lirian Cohen, 29 points; Jack Chehabar, 17. Rambam top scorer was Shmuli Goldner, 15 points.
DRS defeats YDE, 51–32. Gabe Leifer’s 26 points and a strong team defensive effort helped DRS improve its league record to 6 and 0 and overall record to 9 and 2.
Coming off two tough losses last weekend in the Emunah Tournament, the Heschel Heat in attempting to defend two consecutive championships here, played some of their basketball of the still-young season on opening day. First the Heat beat their crosstown rivals, the Ramaz Rams, 48–31 in their best defensive game of the year. The Heat opened an 11-point lead at the half, mixing up numerous half-court defenses and, after holding the Rams to 2 points in the third period, extended it to 22 points and coasted to the win. Senior Jonathan Granowitz led three players in double figures with 15 points and senior Sam Lippman had 6 but was a brute on the boards with 16 rebounds (5 offensive). In the nightcap, the Heat confronted Yavneh from Dallas, Texas, whom they defeated in the finals last year, and they continued to play excellent half-court defense in winning 58–41. Granowitz again had 15, leading all scorers, with Lippman chipping in with 10 and sophomore guard Jeremy Speira getting 13. The Heat played the host school in the morning, the only other undefeated team after the first day, and then finished the day against the Hyman Brand School from Kansas.
The Heschel Heat won their third consecutive Weiner Tournament in Baltimore, Maryland, beating the host Beth Tfiloh School 43–34 in front of a boisterous, full-capacity home crowd. After losing to the home team in the opening round by 3, the Heat beat crosstown rivals Ramaz Rams twice to reach the finals. With their senior first team all-tournament all-star Jonathan Granowitz stymied in foul trouble the entire game, the Heat were able to play great defense and hold the home team to 21 points less than in the opening-round game that the Heat lost. Senior Sam Lippman, tournament MVP, continuing in his superb performance all week long, grabbed 16 rebounds and held BT super-forward Dani Katz to 10 points after he had scored 29 points in the first Heat/Warrior contest. Junior Sam Schwartzben continued his superb play all week, coming off the bench to lead the Heat in scoring with 12 points. Sophomore guards Michael Gatan and Jeremy Speira played the entire game, contributing 20 combined points and some excellent defense. The Heat, now 10+6 overall and 3+3 in the league, appear to have found their identity and will determine their place in the league standings the next two weeks when they play four games against worthy opponents, including their rivals, Ramaz, for the fourth time this year, at Heschel on December 17. The Heat host TABC on Wednesday, December 10 at 7:30 p.m. and then travel to Manhattan rival MTA on Sunday, December 14.
League Standings
Boys’ Varsity Hockey
Eastern Division
DRS 14
HAFTR 12
HANC 9
Rambam 9
North Shore 8
Flatbush 5
SSLI 2
Magen David 0
Western Division
RAMAZ 14
Kushner 13
SAR 12
MTA 10
TABC 10
JEC 6
Frisch 6
Heschel 0
Boys’ JV Hockey
Eastern Division
Rambam 12
Flatbush 8
North Shore 7
DRS 6
Magen David 6
HANC 5
HAFTR 2
YDE 2
Shaare Torah 0
Western Division
SAR 10
Frisch 8
JEC 8
MTA 8
TABC 6
Ramaz 5
Hillel 2
Westchester 0
Boys’ Varsity Basketball
Eastern Division
DRS 6–0
HAFTR 4–0
North Shore 5–2
Magen David 3–2
YDE 3–3
Flatbush 2–4
HANC 2–4
Derech Hatorah 1–7
Rambam 0–9
Western Division
Frisch 5–0
TABC 6–1
Ramaz 6–2
Hillel 5–3
Heschel 3–3
JEC 3–4
MTA 3–4
SAR 2–3
Kushner 0–8
Boys’ JV Basketball
Eastern Division
North Shore 5–0
HAFTR 2–0
Flatbush 2–0
DRS 3–1
Shaare Torah 3–3
HANC 2–2
Magen David 2–3
YDE 2–3
Rambam 0–4
Ezra 0–5
Western Division
MTA 3–0
TABC 4–1
Frisch 3–1
SAR 3–1
Heschel 2–1
Ramaz 2–2
JEC 2–3
Kushner 2–6
Hillel 0–6
Middle School Action
Is Under Way
In eighth-grade boys’ action, Magen David Yeshivah, led by new coach Sammy Tawil, opened the season at home versus YDH, who were playing their second game of the season. MDY got off to a very fast start, scoring the first 9 baskets to take an 18–0 lead after one quarter. They never looked back and won convincingly 67–25. MDY was led by Ray Jajadi (12 pts), Victor Braka (9 pts), and Ray Betesh (8 pts). YDH was led by Tannebaum and Krause who each had 6 pts.
YU Maccabees News
YU Macs over Old Westbury. The Yeshiva men’s basketball team beat the College at Old Westbury 81–69 in a Skyline Conference contest at the Max Stern Athletic Center on Thursday evening. With the win, the Maccabees are 4–3 (2–1 Skyline) this season, while Old Westbury falls to 0–6 (0–1 Skyline).
Yeshiva was led by Shelby Rosenberg with his fourth double-double of the season. He scored 25 points and had 12 rebounds. He connected on 9 of 14 from the field and blocked three shots. Benjy Ritholtz shot 7 for 9 from the floor and 3 for 3 from behind the three-point line for 19 points to go along with 5 rebounds. Michael Berg came off the bench and added 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting.
Yeshiva shot 30 for 51 from the field as a team for a 58.8 percent clip. The Maccabees were 15 for 25 in the first half and 15 for 26 in the second half. Yeshiva shot 50 percent (6 for 12) from behind the three-point line.
The Maccabees started a step slow and fell behind in the early stages of the game. Old Westbury led most of the way in the first half, and the visiting Panthers led by as much as 9 in the opening stanza. Old Westbury took a 21–12 lead with 11:12 to go in the first half, capping an 11–1 run that turned an 11–10 Yeshiva lead into the largest lead of the game for Old Westbury.
The Maccabees countered with a strong latter portion of the first half. First they answered with an 11–5 spurt to make the score 26–23 with 7:46 to play. Yeshiva finally took the lead with 2:03 to play on a lay-up by Rosenberg. The 13–1 Yeshiva run was capped by a three-point field goal by Joseph Ammar, who had 7 points in the win.
Old Westbury retook the lead momentarily before Ritholtz connected on a three-point field goal in the closing seconds to close out the half with a 38–37 Yeshiva lead.
The Maccabees never trailed in the second half. Yeshiva opened the final 20 minutes of play on a 9–2 run to take a 47–39 lead with 16:28 to play. Yeshiva proceeded to pull ahead by 10 points moments later and the Maccabees led 51–41 with 13:29 to play.
Old Westbury did not go away and, behind an 11–2 Panther run, quickly got the deficit down to one, and the score was 53–52 Yeshiva with 10:27 to play.
But the Maccabees countered with an 8–0 run to take a 61–52 lead with 6:07 to play and Yeshiva kept the Panthers at arm’s-length distance the rest of the way.
Yeshiva held a 38–34 edge on points in the paint.
Men’s basketball cruises past Maritime College, improves to 3–1 in Skyline. The Yeshiva University men’s basketball team upped its conference record to 3–1 this season (5–3 overall) after the Maccabees beat Maritime College 77–53 in a Skyline Conference game at the Max Stern Athletic Center on Saturday evening.
Yeshiva was led by Shelby Rosenberg with a double-double of 24 points and 11 rebounds to go along with 4 assists, while Benjy Ritholtz had 17 points and 9 rebounds. Shaje Weiss had 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists, while Michael Berg went 3 for 4 from the field for 6 points to go along with 7 rebounds. Jordan Hod added a team co-high 4 assists along with 2 steals.
Maritime College was led by John Liccese with 10 points and 3 assists.
Yeshiva connected on 53.2 percent from the field (25 for 47), including a 60-percent clip in the second half (12 for 20).
The Maccabees never trailed in the contest and Yeshiva started the game on an 8–2 run to set the tempo. The Maccabees maintained the lead for much of the half. Yeshiva led 20–12 with 8:05 to play before the visiting Privateers used a 13–5 run to tie the score at 25 with 4:09 to play.
But the Maccabees used the final four minutes of the first half to reestablish themselves and closed out the first stanza by outscoring Maritime 11–0 to go into halftime with their biggest lead of the half at 36–25.
Yeshiva opened the second half scoring the first 3 points to extend its lead to 14, and the Maccabees led 39–25 with 18:44 to go.
The closest Maritime got to within the lead was 8 points when Yeshiva led 42–34 with 14:55 to go. The Maccabees responded with an 11–2 run to make the score 53–36 with 11:10 to play. From that point the Maccabees coasted to victory.
Yeshiva capitalized on its free-throw attempts, going to the line 28 times and delivering on 23 (82.1 percent). Maritime was 5 for 17 from the charity stripe (29.4 percent).
Final Call For Young Israel Basketball
Attention, athletic directors and coaches: Young Israel Basketball is back for another season. Three divisions—Junior (grades 6–8), Intermediate (grades 9–10), and Senior (grades 11–12). If your shul or school is interested in entering a team, please contact me ASAP at mvp4boys@gmail.com.
Judah Rhine is co-director of MVP Boys Basketball Camp and has been coaching youth basketball for 30+ years. He can be reached at mvp4boys@gmail.com.