In Jewish Hoops America’s preseason rankings, Frisch’s varsity basketball team stood alone in first place, edging out the Shalhevet Firehawks by one vote. Though it feels good to be ranked #1, this ranking really only means one thing: the Cougars will have a big target on their backs the entire season.

Frisch opened up their season last Wednesday, November 2, in a home game against Maor. Frisch took an early first quarter lead and never looked back, opening the season just the way they wanted to. They then had two games over the weekend, both of which were doubleheaders following their JV team. On Saturday night, Frisch played JEC at home, and the narrative was nearly the same as their first game.

On Sunday, Frisch played their first away game in an afternoon game against Hillel. Following their JV team’s thrilling win (they came back from a 42-29 fourth quarter deficit), the Varsity team got off to a slow start, quickly finding themselves down 4-0 and then 8-7. However, the Cougars’ sharpshooter had yet to heat up. Josh Dukas, ‘17, proceeded to hit seven three-pointers in a row, including a shot from five feet beyond the arc and an “and-one” on back-to-back plays. Dukas scored 26 points in the first quarter to give his team a 33-13 first quarter margin. For comparison, NBA quarters are 150% the length of Yeshiva League quarters, and projecting Dukas’ scoring over that amount of time would give him 39 points in the quarter. The NBA record for points in a quarter is 37, set by Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors. Dukas finished the game with 45 points, having only missed four shots, leading the Cougars to a 97-43 win on the road.

Frisch will take their 3-0 record with them to Los Angeles this week, as they will be participating in the Steve Glouberman tournament hosted by Shalhevet. Will we see the country’s top-two ranked teams square off in the Golden State? Only time will tell.

By Mark Abramovitz