Every Tuesday morning at 7:20 ET Nachum Segal presents Elliot Weiselberg on JM in the AM to deliver the Yeshiva League Sports (YLS) Update. This week, Elliot presented his final update of the 2014-2015 season with a wrap up of the annual Bernard “Red” Sarachek Tournament. Spread the word and tune in for the latest Yeshiva League hockey and basketball information, as well as, the occasional update on other sports happenings in the Jewish world. For a deeper look at Yeshiva Sports check out Court Report, also hosted by Elliot, now with new episodes on Tuesday evenings at 7:00pm ET (replay on Sundays from 7-8pm ET). Check out the full transcript of this morning’s update below:
Thanks Nachum. The 2014-2015 basketball season has come to its conclusion, which means that we have only one thing left to talk about, the “Granddaddy of ’em all”, the Bernard “Red” Sarachek Tournament. We have all the action from Championship Monday straight ahead on the final Yeshiva League Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update. Good Morning, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.
The 24th Annual Red Sarachek tournament took place this past weekend, presented in its usual fanfare at the Max Stern Athletic Center on the campus of Yeshiva University. Twenty teams gathered from around the nation to participate, including five from our very own backyard. The Yeshiva League was represented by HAFTR, DRS and Frisch, the top 3 seeds in order, Hillel, seeded 9th, and MTA starting out play in the 15 slot. For five days, the teams did battle with the likes of Chicago’s Ida Crown, Boca’s Weinbaum and the defending champion Panthers of YULA. When filling out your Sarachek Madness brackets, the Tier I semifinal on Sunday pitted the 4 teams that you probably would have expected to be there, our three top Yeshiva League teams, and YULA, with Yeshiva League Champion HAFTR drawing the “California Kids” ,and a rematch of one half of the semifinal matchups in the Yeshiva League playoffs, DRS and Frisch. In the early game, Frisch avenged their semifinal upset from two weeks ago, behind the play of Tyler Hod, leading the team with 11 points and despite the double-double effort of DRS’s Gabriel Leifer, who posted 17 points and 14 rebounds. In the other semifinal, HAFTR rode its triumvirate of Abie Perlow, Max Rosner and Jonathan Greenberg to a 51-37 victory. The three players alone tallied 39 points for the Hawks in the win. This set up a Championship Monday matchup between the two teams that most everyone expected to square off 8 days earlier, the two top rated teams for most of the year, the Frisch Cougars and the HAFTR Hawks.
From the outset, the capacity crowd at the MSAC knew they were in for a thriller, but what transpired was probably much more than they bargained for. For much of the afternoon, the Cougars gave the Hawks fits, but HAFTR was able to keep the game within range. However, the League Champions found themselves down 6 with a few minutes left in the 4th quarter. But two clutch three-pointers from Sammy Mandel erased the Frisch lead to tie the game. Frisch would keep possession for the rest of the quarter, but would not convert, sending the game to Overtime. For three of what will be some of the most debated overtimes over the next few months, Frisch played possession ball, milking the clock from the opening tip to almost the buzzer, doing exactly that for the entire 4 minutes of the second overtime, on which Frisch could not capitalize either.
In the third extra-session, however, the ball-game resumed and with just over a minute to go, the game was tied at 73. Frisch, once again held for a final possession and set up isolation for Benni Tuchman to go one-on-one with HAFTR big-man Abie Perlow. Tuchman drove the lane as the clock wound down and laid in the game winning bucket to give Frisch its first Tier I Sarachek Championship. Tuchman was one of four Frisch players to finish in double-digits, with Tyler Hod, the Tournament MVP, leading the way with 18. Perlow was the high-scorer for HAFTR and the game, dropping 26 points to accompany 14 rebounds.
In other action, Ida Crown took home the Tier II Championship defeating Hillel 49-39. Weinbaum outlasted Maimonides 50-45 for the Tier III Crown, and 20TH Seeded Akiva Day School from Michigan came back to upset host MTA in the Tier IV title game 55-53.
For more information on all Sarachek action, tune in this coming week for the latest edition of the Court Report. Unfortunately, due to the very hectic and compact nature of the Sarachek schedule and combined with the fact that my focus has been on preparation for the upcoming Middle School hockey championship game that my team, the Har Torah Hat Trix will be participating in this coming Thursday night in North Shore, there will be no new Court Report tonight. I apologize to all of the dedicated listeners of the show and promise that you will not be disappointed when the show airs next week.
With Sarachek’s conclusion, that brings us to the close of the 2014-2015 regular season and with it the close of our regular weekly Tuesday morning segment. We will likely have some special segments following the All-Star events coming up over the next few weeks and in the weeks surrounding the 10th Annual Martin Weiselberg Memorial Tournament, but for now, our spot has drawn to a close. I’d like to thank Nachum for the opportunity to present this report each and every week for the last 3 seasons. But more importantly, I would like to thank all of the fans, coaches, parents and especially the participants of the Yeshiva League for taking center-stage and putting on a show worthy of discussion. To all of our graduating seniors, thank you for sharing your four years with us and we wish you the best in whatever your futures hold. For everyone else, the 2015-2016 season is right around the corner, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store.
For the final time of the 2014-2015 season, that was your Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, I’m Elliot Weiselberg