11-8-2014 | Heat Topple Kings 47-36, Advance to Tier II Championship

11-8-2014 | Heat Topple Kings 47-36, Advance to Tier II Championship

By: Efraim Wiener

The 10th seeded Hillel Yeshiva School Heat faced the 11th seeded Kohelet Kings in the first Tier 2 semi-final game of the night. At the beginning of the half, Sam Ashkenazi scored the ball extremely well. He had five points at the very beginning and continued to play with a certain confidence throughout the game. The Kings struggled in the early minutes of the game, couldn’t grab a rebound, and were throwing away the ball. The Heat played with a lot of heart as they strived to get every single rebound. By the end of the first quarter, the game was not very close with the Heat up by nine.

Towards the end of the second half, the Kings started to get into rhythm. Ben Kaplan was rebounding extremely well, but it wasn’t enough to stop the shooting of the Heat. Then Nathan Bibi got into a zone, and proceeded to knock down a few threes. This brought his team up by 11 with three minutes to go in the first half. When all hope was flying away, Aaron Simmens exploded with six points, and Ben Kaplan started to grit and grind, which made the game pretty close. Nearing the end of the first half, the Heat were doing pretty well, but the Kings were slowly climbing back.

At the start of the second half, the Kings were still down nine, but were playing with more intensity and great ball movement. They continuously swung the ball, which created a ton of open shots. Early in the half, Simmens and Jesse Blumenthal each knocked down a three of their own, which brought them within three points. By the end of the third quarter the Kings had come within one point, and things were looking very promising for them.

In the fourth quarter, the Kings took a punch, and started to fall back into a hole. Their shots weren’t falling, and their offense wasn’t flowing, but they managed to stay within five points with three minutes left to go in the game. Bibi continued to score the ball well, and added to the Heat’s lead, which put the game away. The final score was 47-36, with the Heat advancing to the Tier II championship. Nathan Bibi led the Heat with 22 points, while Ben Kaplan led the Kings with 12 points.