The JV Storm Basketball team took on the strong JEC Thunder in front of a rocking house in Elizabeth on Wednesday night. The Thunder came out swinging with a 6-0 lead on two three-pointers before the fans were in their seats. The Storm players kept their cool and climbed out to 13-10 lead after the first quarter led by Shlomo Kroopnick’s (’16) inspired effort in his first career start and superb all-around play from Tai Gerszberg (’16).
After some even play in the second, the Storm carried a slim three point lead at the half. TABC stretched the lead in the third to seven resulting from solid team defense. The lead was stretched to 10 early in the fourth and was held steady despite a late push from the home Thunder to a final score of 43-33. Noah Greenblatt (’17) showed tremendous poise on defense late in the game, Gavi Smith (’16) ran the show smoothly, Aaron Heideman (’16) chipped in with 10 points and solid defense, Yehoshua Naor (’16) played hard-nosed two way basketball laying in 12 points, grabbing 16 boards (nine offensive) and Tai Gerszberg filled in the stat sheet with eight points, seven assists, five steals and five rebounds.