Both Maccabi U.S. basketball teams (16U and 18U) came home with gold last week from the Pan American Maccabi Games held this year in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The 18U team was coached by SAR varsity head coach Rafi Halpert of SAR High School, Abie Rosow, an assistant at Yeshiva University, and Josh Horwitz, the director of Kings Hoops NYC. The team consisted of 12 players representing seven states and was split pretty evenly between Yeshiva League and non-Yeshiva League players. Although most of the players had never met or played together prior to the games, the team meshed well from the start and went 3-0 in the round robin play. The team continued to coast in the semifinal game, beating Australia 95-30. The gold medal game saw a fired up team in Argentina, which came ready to protect their home turf and had no intentions of letting the U.S. team walk all over them. Although they came out on fire with a 10-2 run to start the game, the U.S. team was not to be denied, and with Flatbush’s Zack Hassoun’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 18 seconds to go, the U.S. took home the gold with a 53-51 victory. The games’ MVP was Sammy Teplitsky of SAR.
The 16U team was made up by a small majority of Yeshiva League players and was led by Eyal Kinderlehrer of TABC; Ari Halpert, Jonah Blechner and Darren Solomon of SAR; and Alex August of Berman Hebrew Academy. The combination of August’s shooting, Halpert’s court vision and defense and Kinderlehrer’s size on the offense and defensive end was just too much for the other teams to handle. They went a very impressive 3-0 in round robin play beating the host Argentina team in a very competitive 79-69 that had everyone very excited for the rematch in the gold medal game. The championship was a bit more one-sided as the U.S. took gold with a 76-46 win. Kinderlehrer received the MVP trophy.
