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. 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.
Good morning everyone and a happy 2023!
Today on the first Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update of the calendar year, TABC varsity hockey begins the year the same way last year ended, DRS varsity basketball puts the pressure on the East with a 3-spot and Hillel enters the conversation in JV Basketball. All that and more, straight ahead, good morning, I’m Elliot Weiselberg.
We’ll start out in Varsity Hockey where the start of 2023 turned out to be a continuation of 2022 for the newly minted team to beat, the TABC Storm. Within a week and a half, TABC has taken control of the West and the league, knocking off Frisch and DRS. The Storm completed the sweep of their 2022 finals nemesis Cougars by the score of 5-3 behind a hat trick from senior Eitan Adler. They would then follow that up with a 6-2 drubbing of the Wildcats behind two goals apiece from senior Eli Altman and Junior Shay Fields. As a result, TABC is 10-1, but currently sit one point behind Frisch, who have 21 points, by virtue of that OT loss to TABC 2 weeks ago. Both TABC and Frisch now head into the break, but for the Storm, the road to making March 2023 different than March of 2022 has already begun. In other action, only a week after appendix surgery, Rambam Junior Zevi Herskowitz makes an emergency appearance in the last 7 minutes of the Ravens’ contest with Magen David last night and single-handedly turns a 5-3 deficit into a 7-5 victory keeping Rambam’s slim playoff hopes alive. Also, HAFTR takes two wins on the week, knocking off YDE and HANC, stopping the Hurricanes 3-2 in overtime, on yet another Jacob Wolf extra-session winner.
In JV, TABC has also established themselves as the favorites, jumping out to an early lead on DRS en route to a 4-1 victory, and becoming the sole remaining undefeated team in the league. Frisch kept their playoff hopes alive defeating Ohr Yisroel 4-1, moving into a tie between the two teams, but both will likely need to win out, which include a game against MTA for both and contests with TABC for Frisch and SAR for Ohr Yisroel and have help out East to keep Flatbush away to have any shot at the postseason. MTA is now 3 points up on both after knocking off JEC last night.
Moving over to varsity basketball, they may not be leading the East, but the rate that DRS are knocking off opponents sure has put pressure on the rest of the league to keep pace down the stretch or fall behind. The Wildcats took three wins in 4 days, knocking off Rambam, Flatbush and HAFTR to end 2022, upping their record to 10-3. North Shore still leads the East at 10-0 and don’t seem likely to fall so far, even with a matchup with DRS looming at the end of the month, but for Magen David who, after losing to Flatbush this week, currently sit at 8-2, only one loss ahead and with games against undefeated North Shore and SAR and 2-loss TABC on the docket, one more false step could find the Warriors on the outside looking in at a first-round bye. In other action, TABC got their 9th win and thrust Hillel virtually out of the race for a West bye, with a 59-53 Overtime win behind 19 from Yaakov Salamon.
The Hillel JV Basketball heads in the opposite direction, though, taking wins on the week over Maor and JEC to improve to 5-3, locking up a playoff spot and thrusting them into the race for a first-round home game. A game with Frisch, also 5-3 this coming Sunday will determine which will be guaranteed that berth, but, spoiler, the two could potentially meet again at whomever wins come the first round of the playoffs.
With the playoff race heating up, keeping up to date is a must, and the best place for that is Yeshiva League Pass. For all the latest scores, standings and rankings for both hockey and basketball be sure to follow Yeshiva League Pass on Instagram.
And that was your Tuesday Morning JM in the AM Sports Update, I’m Elliot Weiselberg!
