The last matchup of Thursday’s eight game slate in the Max Stern Athletic Center will see the #5 seed TABC Storm face off against the #12 seed Berman Cougars. Notably, these two teams faced off in the 2019 Tier II Championship Game, when the Storm took down the Cougars in a close match.
TABC, who finished their regular season with a 12-2 record, is coming off of a devastating 38-24 loss to North Shore in the MYHSAL quarterfinals. Aside from the playoff loss, the Storm have been dominant all season and they’ll be looking to get back on track at Sarachek and finish their season on a strong note.
Sophomore sensation Alex August and the Berman Cougars will look to upset the TABC Storm on Thursday in the first round of this year's Sarachek Tournament. (Photo Credit: Akiva Poppers/MacsLive)
Berman, from the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference, has a 22-11 record coming into Sarachek. They have had success at Sarachek in past years and always seem to make some noise in the tournament. As a smaller sized team, they appear to be at a stark disadvantage, but as they’ve proven throughout the year against teams with bigger centers, they have the ability to overcome that disadvantage and use other strengths such as outside shooting to beat their opponents.
PLAYERS TO WATCH:
The Storm are led by Ayden Gurin and Eyal Kinderlehrer on the offensive end, who can both fill up the stat sheet. They’ll be hoping to help the team forget about their 24 point performance in the MYHSAL playoffs. Yaakov Salamon, Eitan Sulemanoff, and Charlie Simmons are also crucial pieces for TABC, as they bring a lot of experience and intelligence to the court.
After losing much of their starting lineup from a year ago, the Cougars rely heavily on the sophomore duo of Alex August and Gabey Margulies. They may be younger than many of the opponents they’ll face on the court, but they both played important roles last year and are fully capable of making a big impact in this year’s tournament. Also look for senior captains Naftali Fischler and Shmuli Levieddin to impact the game. These two are the leaders of the team and they’ll be critical voices in the ears of their younger teammates.
TABC is the favorite to win on paper, but if Berman can rally together and play a strong game, they have a very real opportunity to pull off a classic 12/5 upset victory. This will be an 8:30PM tilt at the Max Stern Athletic Center and will be streamed on MacsLive.