The atmosphere was electric at The Frisch School’s gym this past Monday night for the Yeshiva Middle School Sports Association’s (YMSSA) sixth grade boys basketball championship. The championship game pitted the #1 ranked Hillel Heat against the #2 ranked RYNJ Jaguars. Hillel came into the game with a perfect 8-0 regular season record and RYNJ finished its regular season with a near-perfect record of 7-1. Both Hillel and RYNJ won their earlier playoff games by double digits, but the expectation coming into the championship game was that it was going to be a close, hard-fought battle between two very well-coached teams. And, that is exactly how it played out.
Both teams appeared to be somewhat tentative at the outset, but Hillel jumped out to an early 4-0 lead. Hillel coach David Simhon’s “triangle two” defense was stifling and RYNJ’s offense could not get on track. Thanks to its lockdown defense and a buzzer-beater 3-pointer from Danny Epstein, Hillel led 9-4 at the end of the first quarter. Hillel continued to play tenacious defense to start the second quarter and took a commanding 18-7 lead with four minutes to go before halftime. But, RYNJ clawed its way back thanks to the lights out shooting of sixth-man Azi Mittel. Mittel has been a sparkplug all season for the Jaguars and his 3 for 3 shooting from 3-point land in the first half helped RYNJ narrow the deficit before halftime. Hillel clearly outplayed RYNJ in the first half, but even with 16 first half points from Epstein, it went into the locker room with only a four-point lead (22-18).
The teams traded baskets for much of the third quarter with both teams playing at a high level. At the close of the third quarter, Hillel led 34-33 and everyone in attendance knew they were going to be treated to an entertaining fourth quarter in a game that was going to go down to the wire. Another Mittel 3-pointer put RYNJ up 36-34 with six minutes to go and from there on out both teams played great defense to finish the game. In fact, RYNJ held Hillel to only two fourth quarter points and point guard Natan Pearlman’s foul shot with 3:13 left on the clock—to put RYNJ up 39-36—turned out to be the last point scored in the game.
Although the last three minutes lacked scoring, they certainly didn’t lack excitement. The game was a nail-biter to the very end with stellar defensive play by both squads. With three seconds left, Hillel had one last opportunity to tie it up, but the inbound pass was picked off by RYNJ big man Ephraim Aschkenasy and the buzzer sounded to crown RYNJ this year’s sixth grade champions.
For RYNJ, Mittel finished with 22 points (including a blistering 6-7 from 3-point range), Aschkenasy added in 10 points and 14 rebounds, and Pearlman—the Jaguars floor general and leading scorer over the course of the season—dazzled with his impressive ball handling and topflight defense (including a highlight reel chase down block). Ezra Savetsky, an all-around player with a sweet outside shot tacked on five points, and Dovi Frolich and Chaim Siskind—big contributors all season for RYNJ—played solid defense to help RYNJ stay close and ultimately come back for the win. But what really stood out was RYNJ’s team-oriented defense and passing, a staple of all of Coach Eli Wolk’s Jaguars teams.
The Heat were paced by 22 points from Epstein. Isaac Braha was a defensive presence all night and Ben Nawlo and Alan Warshak made solid contributions on both ends of the floor with Nawlo scoring six points and Warshak adding in four. Hillel’s defensive intensity was apparent from the opening tip to the closing buzzer and they were able to contain a number of RYNJ’s usually prolific scorers.
This year’s championship game had all the ingredients to be an instant classic and it did not disappoint. Congratulations to both teams on a well-played, entertaining game and fantastic season.
