On Monday, the MTA Lions took on Fasman in the battle of Yeshiva vs. Yishiva. This game determined the Tier II Champion.
Eitan Warburg of MTA scored the first basket of the game, but the boys from Skokie responded with the next 14 points, making the score 14-3. The first quarter ended 14-4 in favor of Fasman.
The second quarter only had three baskets in the first four minutes--two by MTA and one by Skokie--to make the score 16-9. The Lions finished the half with five unanswered points to narrow the lead of Skokie Yishiva to 16-14 at the half.
The third quarter was the quarter of Yeshiva (MTA). They started to execute their half-court offense to perfection, utilized the three-point game, and entered the final quarter with a 32-22 lead, as well as all of the momentum.
To start the final quarter, the Yishiva scored four unanswered points to crawl back into the game, making the score 32-26. An Eitan Pfeifer three put Yeshiva back in control, and the Lions had a 35-27 lead with four minutes to go. Yishiva switched to a full court press on defense during the waning seconds of the game. They also started to put Yeshiva at the foul line for 1-and-1s (MTA drained nearly all of their shots). Yishiva tried desperately to score, but it was too little with the deficit they put upon themselves. MTA won Tier II, with a final score of 45-38.
The Yeshiva won all four of their games in the Sarachek tournament. They also own the rights to the head coach’s (Coach Shlomo Weissberg) child’s middle legal name, a deal he made with the team before the start of the tournament to push the team harder. Yeshiva pushed themselves to the max, and now have a Tier II trophy to show for it. Congratulations to MTA.