Every Tuesday morning at 7:20 ET Nachum Segal will present Elliot Weiselberg on JM in the AM to deliver the Yeshiva League Sports (YLS) Update. Tune in for the latest Yeshiva League Spring Sports information, as well as, the occasional update on other sports happenings in the Jewish world. The transcription for this morning’s update is below.
The first full week of 2019 has come and gone and for high school
students, that means that winter break is on the horizon. Playoff positions will start becoming more
clear over the next few weeks with only minimal games after the break on both
the hockey and basketball ends. Today on the Tuesday Morning JM in the AM
Sports Update, the JV Hockey West postseason participants are booked, Varsity
Hockey Division crowns are locked up, MTA pulls a step closer to a bye in JV
Basketball, and results from the 2019 Scott Satran Memorial Tournament. All
that and more, straight ahead, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.
With only 11 games left in JV Hockey entering the week, one had to
figure that the playoff picture would be nearly clear before winter break.
After this past week, one division knows which 4 teams will represent once
post-season play starts. The Western
Division had known for quite some time that Kushner, SAR and TABC would find
their way into February, but the race for the last spot took only two games
into January to decide. With TABC’s 3-0 win over Frisch and Ramaz’s 4-3 victory
over SAR, Frisch found their last hopes severed as the Rams put the wraps on a
berth. Exactly where each team will finish is not yet determined, however, we
do know that the top 2 spots in the division belong to TABC and Kushner while
SAR has a one point lead on Ramaz for the 3rd seed, with Ramaz still
to face Flatbush after the break. Over in the East, North Shore and DRS have
the 1 and 2 spot. Flatbush, Rambam and HAFTR are still vying for the last two
slots.
While several games still remain in Varsity Hockey, two things are
clear: the 2019 division champions. The West and the East will belong,
respectively, to Frisch and DRS. Both would cement their claims with wins over
TABC this past week. Tuesday night, the Cougars scored two goals in the third
to break a 1-1 tie and clinch the West with a 3-1 win, sweeping the season
series with the Storm. Saturday night, DRS would blank TABC 2-0 to wrap up the
East, also setting up a potential rematch between the 2 teams in the
semifinals, should both reach that stage. In other action, Kushner tops HANC
8-5 to keep their playoff hopes in the West alive and Ramaz and SAR end in a
3-3 tie.
Moving over to JV Basketball, where the JV West already knows who its
champion will be. The SAR Sting have now clinched the top seed by virtue of MTA
knocking off Frisch 65-58. MTA’s win also puts itself in great position to earn
the number 2 seed with a win. MTA presently sits at 7-1, while Frisch and TABC
sit behind it at 7-2. With games against Westchester and Heschel coming up, one
MTA win will lead to at worst a tie with the two North Jersey teams with MTA
holding the tiebreak. It seems much more likely that the other two will be
hosting some combination of Ramaz, Heschel or JEC in the first round. In the
East, 5 of 6 berths have been clinched. North Shore, Magen David, HAFTR, DRS
and Shaare Torah will be heading to the postseason with either Flatbush or YDE
earning the final spot.
In Varsity Basketball, Frisch took 2 wins to separate itself from the
pack in the West, beating TABC and MTA to pull into the driver’s seat at 9-3.
The most attention, however, was on Long Island where the 2019 Scott Satran tournament
took place in HAFTR this weekend. Rambam
and Magen David went undefeated through the round-robin session to earn the top
2 spots in the knockout rounds where each disposed of their semifinal
opponents, Rambam, the DRS Wildcats and Magen David, the host HAFTR Hawks. In
the finals, Senior Ray Jajati’s 24 points propelled the Warriors to a 66-44
victory, giving Magen David another tournament win on the year. Senior Michal
Natkin was awarded Tournament MVP.
And that was your Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, I’m
Elliot Weiselberg.
