11-1-2013 | Hurricanes squeak by Macs, 41-39

11-1-2013 | Hurricanes squeak by Macs, 41-39

By: Efraim Wiener

The final Tier 2 matchup of the day was between the #3 seed Scheck Hillel Hurricanes and the #6 seed home town Cooper Macs. The opening tip went to Hillel and Nissim Franco drained a shot. Then Bryan Itkowitz of Cooper fought hard for a layup, but got fouled and missed both shots. After two minutes the score was still 2-0 with Hillel in the lead. Nissim got a steal and scored again, but Gabe Goldstein of Cooper answered with a steal and a layup of his own. Then Benjamin Kampf of Cooper stuffed a shot by Hillel and Itkowitz scored after the block. Gabe Goldstein continued to show his great passing abilities by having a great pass inside to David Silberman. When the first quarter came to a close, the Macs found themselves down by a score of 8-6.

The second quarter got underway with Hillel bringing up the ball. Benjamin Kampf had a great drive to the basket, but was blocked. After Cooper looked like they weren’t going to get back after getting down by eight, Benjamin Kampf had an amazing layup and was fouled. He then made the ensuing free-throw. Then Ariel Kampf brought the ball up the court and passed it to his brother Benjamin, who knocked down a huge three-pointer. Later in the quarter, Goldstein fired and knocked down a huge three pointer too. However, Hillel kept their lead and they were still up by eight. Goldstein made a layup towards the end of the quarter to cut into the Hurricanes lead. At halftime, the score was 23-18 with Hillel in the lead.

As the second half started, Cooper brought the ball forward. Benjamin Kampf sank a beautiful three which had the crowd on its feet. Later, Benjamin Kampf took back the ball and hit another three which brought Cooper to within one point and made the crowd go wild. Hillel had a three-point shooter of their own in Yonatan Sultan who made a three to put Hillel up by four. Cooper then had two, two-point plays, and a foul shot, to put them up by one. The game went from looking out of Cooper’s reach to a very close battle between the two evenly matched teams. After the timeout, Bryan Itzkowitz of Cooper was fouled and made both foul shots to put Cooper back up by one. Jacques Kaswan of Hillel, made Cooper’s defense look like a joke as he cleverly maneuvered himself around Cooper’s defense and sunk a jump shot, leaving Cooper fans feeling saddened. David Silbermann returned the favor sinking a jumper of his own, leaving Cooper trailing by one at the end of the third quarter.

Right at the start of the fourth quarter, David Silberman made a layup, which made the play look as easy as pie from Ricki’s Cookie Corner. With six minutes left to play, Itkowitz forced a jump ball, but it went to Hillel who scored off of the play. Itkowitz was later fouled and made both free-throws. Kaswan struggled during the third and fourth quarter and only got the ball a few times. Then, with less than 3 minutes Silberman made a clutch jumper to put Cooper up by three. After getting fouled, Jacky Klainbaum missed two free-throws, which was probably due to the crowd cheering. With 1:23 left, Tyler Burstyn from Hillel drained a three to tie the game up at 39. Hillel had the ball with 33.4 seconds left, and with 14.8 seconds left, Alex Froimzon made a clutch layup to put Hillel up by two which proved to be the winning basket.