The (2)Valley Torah Wolfpack relied heavily on their defense, which forced 15 turnovers, as well as their offensive rebounding, as they edged out a 49-38 win against the (15) MTA Lions. Johny Dan had a game-high of 17 points and 15 rebounds, including 11 on the offensive glass.
In the first quarter, Valley Torah started out with a stifling 1-3-1 full-court press, which made it very difficult for MTA to get their offense set up. Although they applied tremendous defensive pressure, Valley Torah was unable to separate from MTA, who exhibited a tough defense of their own, and the quarter ended with a 15-9 Wolfpack lead.
The second quarter started off all MTA as they got out on a 7-0 run to retake the lead at 16-15. The Wolfpack did not score until a Dan three-pointer gave them back the lead three minutes into the quarter. A buzzer-beater attempt by Valley Torah was blocked and MTA took a 24-22 lead into the half.
The second half continued with back and forth scoring and turnovers for the first four minutes, but MTA struggled against the Wolfpack defense and did not score for the last 4:35 of the quarter. Valley Torah dominated MTA on the offensive boards and pulled out a comfortable 35-28 lead.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, Daniel Book got inside for two of his 12 points and cut the Wolfpack lead to five. Valley Torah was able to extend their lead to nine and their full-court press proved too difficult to beat for MTA, who could not stage a comeback.
With the win, Valley Torah moves on to Tier I, where they will take on (10)Magen David at 2:00 pm on Friday in the Max Stern Athletic Center.
MTA will fall to a Tier II Qualifier where they will take on (18)Hillel at 10:30 am on Friday at TABC.
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