JCC of Central New Jersey Men's Basketball

It's been 3 long months but the wait is finally over.  JCC basketball is back and it's Shamarvelous!!! Lots of new faces and new features to talk about this season, including the addition of a seventh team, but none bigger than the addition of every game being streamed on the Sporfie app.  And we promise that no refs were harmed in the filming of these games:

Before we get started with the recaps, shout out to everyone that makes this possible, including new head of JCC sports  and scorekeeper, Josh Tannenbaum.  Thanks as always to the refs and finally thanks to Matt Ceccarelli for taking the time to watch every game and compile the stats that make these recaps possible (this season including FGM/FGA/3PM/3PA/FTM/FTA/ASST/REB/STL/BLK). So let's get to some recapping:

Black 70 - Blue 49:  This game featured the Black team, coming off of a surprising last place finish, squaring off against the new addition to the league, the Blue team, though they were missing half of their roster (we all know the greatest ability is availability so hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come).  Thanks to Nolan for filling in for the blue team and contributing 10 points in the losing effort.  Blue got out to a quick start but ran out of gas playing with only five guys.  Zach Sicherman is happy about all these new stats otherwise we wouldn't know he finished with 14 points and 17 rebounds (putting that volleyball leaping ability to good use).  Blue team captain Brian Maier, free from his restraints from his former Black squad, made up for lost time by launching 18 shots and unfortunately for him making only 5 en route to 10 points. Finally, welcome to Mike Pollack, one of many new faces in the league this season, who had an all around strong debut 10 pts/5 assts/6 rebs and David Kobiashvili, who amassed 7 steals in his first JCC action.  The black team was happy to welcome back Gary Levine into the fold because without him the Black squad really struggled defensively last season.  If this black team can consistently hold teams under 50 points, good luck beating them because they have some serious offensive firepower.  Last years leading scorer, Siri Carpien, was back leading the team in scoring with an efficient 25 points and 20 rebounds.  Siri has his eye on the MVP award this season.  TJ Farrell (a "little less" efficieint 5/21 and 4/17 from three) finished with 16 points and it was good to see Damian Jackson back and healthy adding 13 points.  Also contributing the the black victory were new additions David Steinbruck (no missed layups) and Drew Mandelbaum.

Grey 63 - Red 62: This was a rematch of last season's championship game, and the result was eerily similar, a 1-point come from behind victory for the 5-time defending champion Grey team.  Red was playing without Eric Sass and Ben Carr while Grey was missing Mike Hughes.  Red got out to an early lead behind the lights out shooting of Adam Hynes (who scored 25 points) and Colin Neff (20 points/21 rebs).  Meanwhile Grey couldn't hit the side of a barn early on (aside from this midrange pullup - shoutout to Steve Bachman for working on my mid-range game with me) and fell behind by double digits.

Red led by as many as 12 points in the second half and held a 10-point lead with 6:00 left.  That's when Shamar Mason (15 points) started to take over offensively along with Matt Ceccarelli (19 points) and with 2:00 left Grey had taken a 6 point lead.  Colin then came down and made a driving layup and was fouled for the and-1.  The lead was three and Red fouled Shamar who missed the front end of a 1-and-1 (the curse of Justin Dank).  That was followed by this deep three by Adam Hynes to tie the game.  

Colin then fouled Mike Korn (welcome back to Grey) and he hit 1 of 2 fts.  Red drew up an inbound play but the pass was tipped by Matt Ceccarelli and ended up in the hands of Korn and Grey held onto a 1 point victory.  Korn in his return from a season off scored 13 points, most coming on his patented baseline fadeaway.  New additions to Grey Brandon Wendel (6 points/4 rebs/3 steals) and Alex Stone (5 points/6 rebs) made their presence felt as well.  Red got 9 from Gabe Berkowitz and Mike Borik added 5 points and 4 assists.  Smuly-watch is on...

Red 53 - Gold 44: Because of the 7th team this season, every team will have to play two games in the same week twice during the season. This week it was Red's turn. So after the heartbreaking defeat from Wednesday night, Red was back on the hardwood to take on Gold (without Anthony Melzi this season due to a back injury - get better soon).  This time Red was again playing without the services of Ben Carr as well as Adam Hynes but they welcomed Eric Sass back into the fold and he made his presence felt.  Sass led Red with 23 points and 19 rebounds and was able to seal the win late with some clutch FTs. This was a very close game throughout and was tied with just 2:00 remaining.  Gold was led by newcomer Jake Granoff (11 points), Jason Narod (10 pts) and 8 apiece from Steve Bachman and Michael "neighbor" Huberman and Cory Rothbort added 4 points. Neither team shot particularly well in what was a grind it out defensive battle.  Colin followed up his 20/20 effort with another double-double (11 pts/12 rebs) and Red also got 8 points from Jon Kanarek and Gabe Berkowitz. Red moved to 1-1 on the season and will be scary when they get the full arsenal together.  For Gold I think brighter days are ahead as they learn to incorporate newcomers Jake Granoff and Andre Lewis (who didn't put up any points but made his presence felt locking up Colin defensively and gettng 4 steals).

Orange 65 - Green 48: Green was missing Andrew Merel and Jordan Perlmutter while Orange played without Alex Schosheim.  Orange had a very balanced attack with four players scoring in double digits.  Ben Huber led the team with 16 points (8/13 shooting) followed by Rory Schulman (14 points including 4/5 from three), newcomer Michael Gerstein (14 points/6 assists/4 rebs) and 11 points from captain Jake Lillie.  Orange has two additional new JCC league members in Matt Birnbach (7 points) and Graham Haskell (6 pts/6 rebs).  Green was led by Adam Bendik's 15 points and Dan Amsellem's 13 points and 14 boards.  In a continued show of defiance, several Green team members continue to sport their Green jerseys.  Talks are underway with league czar of discipline Josh Tannenbaum to determine a proper punishment.  Green did shoot well from three but really struggled from the charity stripe (a paltry 5/14).

This is the first week back so it'll take some time getting back into the groove of writing these recaps.  They are likely to come a little later than normal with the addition of the new stats.  If anyone wants to watch their games and send me some highlights, I am always open to that. Additionally, if you want to reach out to me after games to give me some added color about the games I welcome that as well.  It's good to be back and looking forward to a great season.

Stat leaders after week 1:

Scoring:

Adam Hynes - 25 ppg

Siri Carpien - 25 ppg

Eric Sass - 23 ppg

Rebounds:

Siri Carpien: 20 rpg

Eric Sass: 19 rpg

Zac Sicherman: 17 rpg

Assists:

Dan Amsellem - 6 apg (that's right the big man can pass)

Michael Gerstein - 6 apg

Mike Pollack - 5 apg

Steals:

David Kobishvili - 7 spg

David Steinbruck - 5 spg

Colin Neff - 5 spg

Blocks:

Siri Carpien - 3 bpg

Adam Hynes - 2 bpg

3-pointers made:

4 players tied with 4 (Siri Carpien/TJ Farrell/Rory Schulman/Michael Gerstein)