Memphis Yeshiva Invitational

10-31-2013 | JDS Lions Start Slow; Down Hurricanes, 46-28

10-31-2013 | JDS Lions Start Slow; Down Hurricanes, 46-28

By: Efraim Wiener

The final matchup of the day featured the # 12 seed Schek Hillel Community School Hurricanes against the #5 seed Charles E. Smith JDS Lions. The tip went to the Lions, and Bryan Knapp got a put-back layup at the beginning of the game. Jacques Kaswan on Hillel answered right back with a three. The Lions fought back with a layup. The score early on was 7-6 in favor of the Hurricanes. They then got a steal increasing their lead to three points. The Lions answered back by dropping two shots to go back up by one. Hillel got another steal to get back into the game and go up by three. By the end of the 1st quarter, their lead had lengthened to 5. Hillel came out swinging trying pull an upset and it appeared to be working.

At the beginning of the second quarter, Jon Prigal of the Lions immediately got an easy layup. Hillel was definitely giving the Lions a hard time by playing great offense and defense and had pushed the lead up to 7 points. The scoring then slowed down with the Hurricanes up 19-14 since both teams seemed to have lost their shooting touch. The Lions then slowly worked their way up to within 2 points of the Hurricanes. Hillel then went up by four points since it finally had some success on offense. At the end of the half, Hillel had built the lead up to 9 with the score being 26-17 thanks to a buzzer-beater by Jacques Kaswan of the Hurricanes.

The second half started with the gritty Lions pushing forward. Bryan Knapp had a nice finger roll and the Lion’s offense started clicking. Hillel then answered with a put-back layup after a bunch of failed layup attempts. Hillel had two consecutive turn-overs, but were still ahead by seven. The Lions then forced a steal and got an easy lay in off of it. But the Lions drained a three to tie the game up at 28. Matan Meloul drained two consecutive 3-pointers to put his team ahead by three.

As the 4th quarter got underway, the Lions offense and defense continued to click. They went on a huge run to get ahead of the aggressive Hurricanes. The Lions played great basketball and were up by 12 with four and a half minutes left. A minute later, Steven Beda 21 of Hillel fouled out and the lead lengthened to 14. Hillel began to really fade as the game wound down throwing up threes which just did not fall. The Lions, who ended the game on a 25-0 run, won their first game at the Cooper Invitational by a final score of 46-28. Matan Meloul led the Lions with 13 points, while Jacques Kaswan paced the Hurricanes with 12 points in their losing effort.

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