Thanks Nachum!

With finals and winter break upon us, the realization that the playoffs are not all that far away will certainly creep up on our teams very shortly. Across the Yeshiva League, the anticipation and desperation has reached a fever pitch and we are seeing several important matchups go down to the wire and even end in surprising finishes. Straight ahead on your Tuesday morning JM in the AM Sports Update, we cover two bouts of déjà vu, one emanating from the 2016 Scott Satran Memorial Tournament. Good Morning I’m Elliot Weiselberg.

There is no more tightly packed division, right now, than the Varsity Hockey West. Coming into the week, 5 teams were within 4 points of each other and four of those teams would pair off and do battle as Kushner and Frisch squared off along with Ramaz and SAR. In Livingston, Frisch jumped out to an early lead on a goal by Bryan Alter. Arthur Greenfield and Stevie Brinn would trade off goals for Kushner and Frisch respectively with Frisch taking a 2-1 lead late into the third period. With under 2 minutes remaining, and Frisch on a powerplay, Kushner Junior Eli Slomin capitalized on a Frisch error, scoring a shorthanded goal to tie the game at 2. Three minutes into the extra period, Greenfield netted his 2nd of the night for the OT game winner. The Déjà vu moment for these two teams: This is the 2nd year in a row that these two teams met with Kushner winning in overtime after scoring in the closing moments of regulation to tie. In the other game, SAR rode three Gordie Kolb goals to a 5-2 victory over Ramaz.

Out in the East, Magen David saw their playoff push cut short dropping a 4-0 contest to North Shore and losing their season finale to HANC who now leap-frog them into 5th place in the Eastern Division.

Over in Varsity Basketball, a pairing of rivalries this week, one on the schedule and one that was bound to happen anyways. The one on the schedule was the contest between Frisch and TABC in Frisch, which Frisch took 49-48 after being pushed to the brink in Overtime by their close rivals. The other occurred after three days of battle at the 2016 Scott Satran Memorial Tournament. The event always a grand spectacle put on by HAFTR reached new height this year as 8 teams squared off this past weekend. Thursday night saw DRS defeat Waterbury, HANC double up YDE, JEC outlast Rambam and HAFTR bounce Magen David. On day two, HAFTR, HANC and DRS would all win their 2nd contests, while Waterbury got itself into the winner’s table with an impressive win over Magen David. Saturday night would see DRS and HAFTR pick up their third wins to take the top 2 seeds in tier 1, while JEC would jump into tier 1 contention and Rambam would put one in the win column. Sunday would see two sessions of games with the playoffs in the morning and the championship rounds in the afternoon and in the end, the fans got the marquee matchup that they came to see as DRS and HAFTR would square off for the grand prize for the second year in a row. Take you back to last year where a shorthanded Wildcat squad upset HAFTR ending their chance for an undefeated season. This year with DRS as the favorites and the bagel in the loss column, HAFTR looked to play a similar role. Through the first 16 minutes, the Hawks looked to be up to the task heading into the locker room only down 25-23. But in the 3rd quarter, the Wildcats woke up on both ends of the floor, dominating the Hawks 20-4 in the period. HAFTR would never get any closer than 14 points after that and the Wildcats would repeat as Satran Tournament champions by the score of 63-43.

For more Yeshiva League action, and recaps from the past week of action, tune in to tonight’s encore presentation of the Court Report on the Nachum Segal Network. With the playoffs closing in, every game is important and we give you the scoop on every one of them, tonight, at 7PM only on the Nachum Segal Network, Nachumsegal.com.
And that was your Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.