There was excitement in the air at JEC on Saturday night as the Kushner Cobras came to Elizabeth to battle the JEC Thunder JV, with playoff implications written all over the game.

With hundreds of vocal fans packing the sparkling JEC gym, the two teams started nervously and slowly. JEC’s star center, sophomore Ethan Thurm, began the scoring for JEC with a bucket, and under his power umbrella, the Thunder built up an 11-6 lead at the end of the first period.

Thurm got into early foul trouble and in reply, Kushner found its venom in the second quarter, as the Cobras tightened JEC’s lead to only four. But when Thurm came back into the game, he immediately displayed his dominance with 12 points in the second period. Thurm was ably assisted by a trey from Josh Krause, and big buckets from Benny Gluck and Jacob Feit, starting his first high school game. With that combo, JEC led at the half 32-21.

It was in the third period that Thurm’s domination began to truly manifest itself most dramatically. A series of inside power plays and offensive rebounds, enabled Thurm to score 11 points in the third quarter, while Krause and Feit deflected the ball to Kushner’s distraction in the new trapping zone JEC was employing. The end of the third period saw JEC with a 16 point bulge, 46-30.

JEC then took total control. Feit netted a trey, as did PG Dani Hess, and Krause added one of his own. When the final horn sounded JEC had a 67-45 win. JEC played its entire bench, and Thurm had another huuuuge double double finishing with 34 points and 19 rebounds. Hess had eight points and four steals and Krause and Feit each tallied seven points.

JEC JV, with two games remaining, could make the playoffs by winning out.

Moving on to the varsity game, which promised to be a competitive battle between two teams fighting to find a spot in the six out of 10 team playoff list in the balanced, and highly competitive, yeshiva league west division.

JEC was coming off four straight wins, all over top 10 nationally ranked teams, to earn a top 25 national ranking for the first time in four years. Kushner, in the national discussion all season, had just lost an exciting game to another playoff challenger, MTA, on Wednesday night in overtime. Those teams were evenly matched and by all pre-game accounts. JEC also was evenly matched with Kushner, and another barnburner was in the offing.

Kushner won the tip, but as would be its pattern all night, JEC stole the ball and captain guard Aharon Heller started the night off with a driving bucket for JEC. From there, the contest in the first period was a roller coaster, as JEC managed a three point lead ending the first quarter, 10-7 Thunder.

Aharon Heller started off the second period with a long trey, to give JEC a 13-7 lead. PF Jake Goldberg followed that bomb with a smooth trey of his one (one of four on the night) and JEC led 16-7.

Kushner scored on a 3 pointer, but Aharon Heller netted yet another trey and JEC built a 19-10 lead.

The Cobras had no die in them, and by the 3:39 mark in the second period, narrowed the JEC lead to five points, 21-17. That pattern continued through the remainder of the second period, and at the half, JEC was clinging to a 26-20 bulge, in what had become anybody’s game.

To start the second half, Kushner star center Gabe Plotsker scored on one of his classic turn-around jumpers in the paint, and the score was narrowed to 26-22 JEC. But, that was as close at it got for Kushner. Junior SG Hillel Glick buried a pull up J in the paint, and that was followed by a floater from senior SF Yair Kimmel and yet another Goldberg trey at the 5:48 point. Before you knew it, the JEC lead was back up to 33-22, and Kushner called time out.

For the rest of the period, the Cobras and Thunder traded baskets and at the end of the third period, JEC held on to a nine point lead, 41-32.

In the final stanza, JEC went into its classic slow-down mode. The Thunder extended its defensive zone to take away the easy threes from the Cobras. Kushner, in response, wisely fed the hungry Plotsker on the low block, and he succeeded in scoring inside on a variety of moves, (14 in the second half, six in the fourth period). But JEC was equal to the task and matched Plotsker bucket for bucket, and Kushner could not narrow the lead.

Eventually, Kushner had to resort to fouling JEC to regain the ball. As Plotsker made inside scores for twos, JEC was converting its one and ones and then its bonus twos, to shoot 10-12 from the charity stripe in the fourth period (16-19 for the game).

That accuracy, coupled with a back breaking full court “bingo” score to break the Kushner press and a nifty layup from senior Jacob Winters, enabled JEC to cruise to a 59-45 win.

For JEC, Aharon Heller had 19 points. Goldberg had 13 points and four treys. Moshe Heller had 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists. Kimmel tallied seven points and Winters added six points.

For Kushner, Plotsker led all scorers with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

By JLNJ Sports Desk