This past weekend the annual Rubinstein Basketball Tournament took place, where fans, players and coaches got an exciting glimpse of what will be in store for the upcoming junior varsity basketball season. The tournament fielded some of the premiere basketball talents around the tri-state area including: the JEC Thunder, Frisch Cougars, Barkai Yeshiva, DRS Wildcats, Flatbush Falcons, North Shore Lions, HANC Hurricanes, Magen David Warriors, HAFTR Hawks, Hillel Heat, Ramaz Rams, and the host school, the SAR Sting. Each game of the tournament displayed tremendous talent and skill, but the ultimate point came in the culmination of the tournament—the championship game.
The title game featured two teams who are familiar with past success in the Rubenstein Tournament, the Frisch Cougars and the SAR Sting. Off the opening jump, the SAR Sting displayed their home court momentum by limiting the Cougars’ offensive opportunities, while creating many of their own, to jump out to a quick lead. After a timeout, the Cougars decided to go out on a run of their own and retake control of the game. Throughout the remainder of the first half, neither team held greater than a two-point lead, until a pair of buckets from Frisch’s backcourt sophomore duo, Noam Grossman and Jonathan Milgrom, gave the Cougars a six point cushion heading into the final half of the tournament.
In the beginning of the second half, the Cougar’s lead expanded to as many as nine points, but after putting up a challenging fight to reach the championship game, the SAR Sting were reluctant to let the game slip away from them. The Sting sprang out into a full court trap which limited their opponents’ offensive chances, while also turning their great defense into offensive opportunities as well. After several acrobatic and successful transition finishes from sophomore guard Ari Halpert, his teammate Nathan Wild not only tied the game, but on the next possession, gave the Sting the lead with under a minute remaining in regulation. The Cougars did not let this lead last long, as freshman phenom Isaac Stepner willed his way past several defenders to tie the game with under 30 seconds to go. On their final possession of the game, the Sting executed a perfect game plan to find an open shot, which unfortunately wouldn’t fall, but with a mere three seconds left in the game the Cougars got the rebound and called a quick timeout. The Cougars inbounded the ball from the opposite end of the court and drew up a Christian Laettner-esque play (sorry Kentucky fans) for Stepner, who not only outleaped his defender to catch the ball, but was able to put up a successful shot as time was expring to give the Cougars the victory in exciting fashion.
The Cougars carried their hardware back to Paramus with high aspirations for the season.
