Thank  you Nachum.

Straight ahead on The Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update A stunner in JV Basketball as a championship favorite is upended and Yeshiva League Basketball lit Memphis on fire this weekend as five teams participated in the Cooper Invitational Tournament. Good morning, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.

JV Basketball saw one of its top contenders stumble right out of the blocks as the SAR Sting fell to the MTA Lions in their 2014-2015 opener., MTA opened up a 14 point lead in the second half backed by the play of their trio of bigs, Yehudah Colton and Yehudah and Binyamin Bookbinder. But it would not be an easy route to the win. Despite a strong start, MTA squandered the lead and ended up tied at 39 with 3 seconds left in the game. Off of an inbounds play, Colton attempted a layup with 1 second left and was fouled in the process. Colton would hit 1 of 2 shots as the buzzer rang giving MTA the 40-39 victory. Colton would finish as MTA’s high scorer with 10.

For the seventh year, the Cooper Memphis Invitational Basketball tournament has set the stage for the upcoming basketball season, and for Yeshiva League fans, the cream of the crop is right in front of you. Five teams participated from our ranks, HAFTR, North Shore, Frisch, TABC and Hillel. Over the 4 days, our teams went a combined 12-4, with two of those loses in head to head matchups, 3 semifinalists and two championships. First to Tier II, where the Hillel Heat, rebounding from an early loss to YULA, took home the championship dominating former Tier I Champion Chicagoland 63-31. Frisch’s projection as early-season championship favorites took a hit when they too fell to YULA in the quarterfinals, relegating them to the Tier I consolation round. The Cougars would take home 5th place.

In the Final 4, the HAFTR Hawks would avenge their league brethren, knocking off the Panthers while North Shore ended TABC’s tournament run, which given how far they went should give Storm faithful a positive vibe for the upcoming year. The tournament finals would feature HAFTR and North Shore, the two teams that had already faced in the Magen David Tournament finals in September, this being their second meeting already, and they still have at least 2 games to play that count in the standings!

HAFTR looked to be headed for disaster late in the 4th quarter when, down 1, Junior phenom Abie Perlow picked up his 5th foul. Up would step Michael Weissman, draining a bucket to take the lead, then stepping in to steal the ball away from the Stars to lead to a score at the other end by Jonathan Greenberg. Down two, North Shore’s Cody Cohen would have a clean look from downtown, but the ball hit off the rim as the clock ran out, giving HAFTR tournament victory #2, and more importantly, yet another mental notch on their divisional rivals.

It was hardware abound as TABC’s Moshe Brum, HAFTR’s Perlow and North Shore’s Cohen took home All-Tournament honors, Hillel’s Nathan Bibi was awarded tier II MVP honors, while HAFTR’s Jonathan Greenberg earned the same for Tier I. Also, congratulations to TABC’s Doni Kilimnick for winning the 3-Point Shooting Contest.

Speaking of HAFTR, earlier this week, it was announced that the Hawks and the Flatbush Falcons will be playing one of their regular season games at the home of the Brooklyn Nets, the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn on Sunday December 28th at 7PM stay tuned for more information regarding that game in the coming weeks.

Want to find out more about these games and other action from the past week? Tune in to tonight’s encore presentation of the Court Report at 7PM on the stream, Nachumsegal.com. And that was your Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.