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.
Thanks Nachum!
Last week we reported about how crazy the Varsity Hockey league results have been, well, this week, it’s all about how the Varsity Basketball league truly shows why March is the time of sheer madness. Straight ahead on the Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, you really can’t make this stuff up. Good Morning I’m Elliot Weiselberg.
One week after noting that 3 of 4 varsity hockey underdogs had advanced to the semifinals, varsity basketball said “Hold my beverage” as the quarterfinals took place Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday night saw West #4 seed SAR upset the East top seed HAFTR 62-52 behind Senior Jon Hyman’s 20 points, knocking the #1 team in the nation out of the Yeshiva League Playoffs. Thursday night would spell the end of the line for the participants in last year’s finals, as West #2 Heschel and East #2 Magen David fell to the opposing three seeds, Shaare Torah and TABC. Junior Freddy Swaid led Shaare Torah with 17 in the 56-48 win, Heschel Senior Ricky Sutton posted 19 in the loss and Senior Albert Nsiri’s 20 wasn’t enough for Magen David as TABC ran to a 60-49 win behind Junior Noam Kinderlehrer’s 19. Finally, as if it weren’t a bad enough round for the top seeds, Senior Zach Brown’s buzzer beater helped East #4 DRS knock off West champion Hillel 59-57. As a result, the semifinals will both feature 3 seeds hosting 4 seeds as West 3 TABC hosts DRS and East #3 Shaare Torah will battle West #4 SAR, both Wednesday night, with a trip to the finals on the line.
JV looked to be heading in a similar direction Tuesday night as West #3 TABC upended East #2 seed Flatbush 53-45, however, normalcy would return as the home teams were victorious the rest of the way. West #1 SAR downed North Shore 51-45 and will host the Storm tonight in Riverdale. On the other side of the bracket, East #1 DRS followed their varsity brethren knocking off Hillel 58-45 and will host Frisch, winners of their bout with Magen David 74-60. That contest will also take place tonight with the winners punching their ticket to the finals this Sunday evening.
The festivities this Sunday for the basketball championships at the Max Stern Athletic Center will kick off with the JV championship at 5PM followed by the Varsity finals at around 7:30. If you can’t be at YU to be a part of the action, be sure to tune in to Macslive.com for a joint presentation of the championship games by the Yeshiva Sports Network and Macslive, the home of YU Basketball. Coverage of the games, sponsored by Regal Bank of New Jersey and Yeshiva League Pass, will start around 4:30 hosted by yours truly and will run all the way through the Varsity post-game, following which, Macslive will present its 2020 Red Saracheck Tournament Seeding show. Last year’s broadcast had over 10,000 views and we expect more of the same this year. To become a part of this ground-breaking broadcast, or to become a sponsor, e-mail Yeshivachampionships@gmail.com.
Moving over to Hockey, the JV Championship is set. It will be an all-West final as the TABC Storm rode a Hat Trick from Sophomore AJ Seplowitz to a 4-1 victory in DRS on Sunday. A 2-1 game to start the third, the Storm scored two goals in the opening three minutes to put the game out of reach and send TABC to their fourth final in a row. Their opponents on March 15th will be the West Champion SAR Sting after an exciting 3-2 Overtime win over the Frisch Cougars. For the 2nd time this year, the difference was a Sophomore Sam Fromen goal, this time under a minute into the extra session.
Varsity Hockey will find itself in a similar position after Thursday night as tomorrow night will see West 3rd seed Kushner taking on West 5th seed Ramaz at 7:30, while Thursday night will see East champion DRS taking on rival East 3rd seed HAFTR at 8:00PM
Girls Basketball will also be an all-West affair. In Varsity, SAR knocked off East top-seed HAFTR 42-37 and Ma’ayanot upended Frisch 52-48. The two will meet for the 3rd time this year after splitting the regular-season series. And in JV, Frisch and SAR advance to the finals after downing Flatbush and North Shore respectively. The finals will take place this Sunday in TABC starting at 10:45AM.
And finally, the JM in the AM Sports Update joins the long list in congratulating the Yeshiva University Maccabees on making the DIII College Basketball National Championship tournament and we wish them the best of luck in their opening round matchup against Worcester Polytechnic Institute and beyond as they start their journey this Friday at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
And that was your Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.
