11-3-2013 | YULA Panthers win 2013 Cooper Invitational

11-3-2013 | YULA Panthers win 2013 Cooper Invitational

By: Efraim Wiener

The 2013 Cooper Invitational Championship Game featured the #3 Yeshiva University of Los Angeles (YULA) Panthers against the #4 North Shore Hebrew Academy (NSHA) Stars (4) in an epic showdown. NSHA had been in this position last year, but lost in the championship, and two years ago YULA won the championship. These two titans were ready to take on each other for the glory of being crowned as this year’s 2013 champions of the Cooper Invitational.

The tip went to YULA and on the first possession and Adam Liber of YULA drained a three. Avery Lubin of NSHA answered with a three of his own. Later, Josiah Himmelman of YULA had a great post move and scored in the paint. As the first quarter continued, Asher Remer of YULA drained two shots and Michael Zborowski of NSHA hit a three-pointer. Towards the middle of the quarter, Menachem Solomon of YULA had a great cut to the basket which ended with a great layup. Then again, Himmelman used his height to score in the paint twice. Later, Lubin drained a second three-pointer. On the next play, Solomon got fouled at the three-point line and made all three free throws to end the quarter.

At the start of the second quarter, the Stars started with the ball. In this possession, Cody Cohen scored a great layup in the paint. After a steal, the ball was passed almost across the entire court into the hands of Solomon who laid it in. Next, after a great inbounds pass to Ariel Sokol, the ball was passed to Moshe Willner, who banked the ball in for another score. Later, after both teams tried grabbing for the ball, it ended up with Zborowski and he made the layup. YULA scored again courtesy of Daniel Tzion with about two minutes left in the quarter. With seven seconds left, Asher Remer made a great pass to Tzion who put the ball in the hoop. This play ended the half, and the score was 32-16 with YULA in the lead.

As the second half got underway, YULA started with the ball. To start the half off, Himmelman had a great reverse lay in. Later, Josh Shmuel of NSHA was fouled and he made one out of two free-throws. Adam Liber answered back by catching an inbound pass and banking it in. After a timeout, the ball was in the hands of Avery Lubin, who laid the ball in. Next, Josh Cohen of NSHA got the ball in the corner and drained a three while getting fouled. He then made the free-throw to complete the 4-point play. Then on a fast-break Ariel Sokol got the bucket. In the next play, Cody Cohen of NSHA was fouled and made one out of two free-throws. Later, Solomon took the ball all the way down to make an easy fast-break layup. By the end of the third quarter, YULA was up by 18 points and the rout was on.

As the final quarter started, NSHA started with the ball, but they turned it over twice. Finally after four minutes of playing time, Himmelman made a layup and Zborowski made a shot. After six minutes had gone by in the last quarter, only 5 points had been scored as both teams went cold. YULA then rode out the clock and won the Cooper Invitational for the 3rd time in 4 years. The final score was 51-34. Josiah Himmelman, was named the most outstanding player of the tournament, scored 16 points. The NSHA Stars were led by Avery Lubin with 10 points, who settled for tournament runner-up for the second year in a row.