For the first time in half a decade, the MTA Lions ventured out of the tri state area for a basketball tournament. They arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday night and on Thursday morning set out for Shalhevet to play against the Frisch Cougars, after which they went to the JEM Center to match up against the Valley Torah Wolfpack. In both games MTA played stellar defense, holding these two juggernaut offenses to 40 and 41 points respectively. However, MTA could not get their shots to fall and came up short in both appearances landing them at the seventh seed to square off against the tournament hosts, the second seeded Shalhevet Firehawks, on Friday morning.

After a slow offensive start, the Lions went on a 14-0 run through the end of the second and beginning of the third quarters putting them up by six. They went on to win the game by three after Aryeh Halpert sunk two clutch free throws, advancing them to the semifinals.

Shabbat was an amazing experience, between eating at the Glouberman’s and spending time with the players on all the other teams. After Shabbat, MTA was again faced with the task of taking on the Cougars and fell behind by twelve by halftime. After coaches Shlomo Weissberg and Mark Wiesel spoke to them, the Lions were ready to bounce back and quickly roared to life. The end score had Frisch winning by two when MTA’s layup rimmed out at the buzzer. The next day the Lions squared up against the YULA Panthers and, behind Meir Jacoby’s 20 points and six threes, prevailed over them to take home third place in the second annual Steve Glouberman Tournament. MTA starting point guard Eli Gruenberg received a place in the first team All-Tournament as well as the Steve Glouberman Award for grit and middot.

By Yehuda Colton