On November 11 the seventh grade boys RYNJ Jaguars started the basketball season at Bicultural Day School, a very worthy opponent. The Jags controlled the game from the beginning. Their offense was strong, but their stellar defense earned them the win. It was a great way to start off the season. Their leading scorer was their great new addition, Avraham Glatter, who scored 14 points.
Next the Jags faced SAR, the reigning champions who defeated the Jags in last years’ semi-finals. They are a very strong team with a lot of talent. Like the last years’ semis, SAR came out on top with a 13 point victory.
The next stop was Moriah. Amazingly, RYNJ basketball teams have not won a game in Moriah’s home court in the past eight years. The team was really pulling to break that streak. The Jags utilized a full court press from the beginning, and stuck with it for large portions of the game. Rallying behind leading scorer Tzvi Motechin, the team defeated Moriah 60-48. Teammates were super excited to break the 8-year losing streak.
The Jags’ next game was a long way from home, at RPRY. Memories of last year’s defeat at RPRY was fresh in the team’s mind. This time, the Jags opened the game with a large lead, only to see a strong comeback effort by RPRY in the 2nd; this cut the lead down to 5 at the half. But, behind a tight zone defense, the Jags started to pull away again in the second half and never looked back. The final score was 60-46. The leading scorers were Yonah Tarzik, Dani Pfeiffer and Pacey Jacoby. The victory was powered by strong rebounding from Tani Engel and Coby Mandel.
It has been a great start for the seventh grade RYNJ basketball team, and they are looking forward to a strong finish.
By Tzvi Motechin, Pacey Jacoby and Yonah Tarzik, team captains
