After a successful first half of the season, the MTA Lions opened up their remaining matchups with a visit to the North Shore Stars. Despite being down two starters, the Lions caught fire to start the game. This was highlighted by a 12-2 run off a pair of threes and several steals leading to transition buckets. North Shore would fight back defensively, stopping MTA in the paint and capitalizing offensively. At the end of the first quarter, MTA held an eight point lead, but North Shore was determined to make a comeback.

In the second quarter, the Lions continued their complete domination of the Stars. Offensively the ball movement was flawless, consistently finding open looks near the rim, while defensively the Stars were forced into taking low quality shots. With a nearly 20 point advantage at the half the lead seemed insurmountable, but with half the game still to play anything was possible.

The second half displayed an entirely different type of North Shore basketball. They started to narrow the lead shortly by getting the stops they needed, but the offense was still minimal. In the fourth quarter the Stars woke up offensively hitting open threes and transition baskets to narrow the lead as low as two. After an MTA free throw to make the lead three, North Shore had one last play to draw up. With six seconds left the Stars got the shot they wanted, but unfortunately it wouldn’t fall, giving MTA the hard fought victory.

This upcoming week the Lions will face the Heschel Heat and JEC Thunder in captivating matchups. Stay tuned for updates.

Ikey Gutlove has been a long time contributor to the sports section of The Jewish link and is currently The Jewish Link of New Jersey sports intern. He can be reached at [email protected].