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Subscribe to our NewsletterAfter a week off to celebrate Thanksgiving, JCC hoops action was back in full swing. The big storyline coming into this week was whether Orange would remain undefeated or would Jon Kanarek's Red team be too much to handle. Before getting into the recaps, I just wanted to acknowledge league founder Dave Nathanson and his contributions to the success of the league (and especially to the Grey team in particular). The JCC honored Nate yesterday with the official unveiling of Nathanson Court and it was great to see so many former and current players turn up for the festivities. I'm honored to do what I can to carry on his legacy (along with the help of many others) and to hopefully continue to grow the league (and these recaps, stats and now live streaming are all amongst the many recent improvements that hopefully add to the overall experience). Who's ready for some recaps?
Black 69 - Blue 55: Due to the late addition of a 7th team this season, there are some strange scheduling quirks which we will hopefully be rectified prior to the next season. One quirk of this wonky schedule is that this is already the second time that Black and Blue are squaring off just 3 weeks into the season. Blue was seeking revenge for the 70-49 beatdown from back on 11/11. Much like in their first matchup, Blue was severely shorthanded playing without the services of Adam Driansky (hopefully getting closer to his debut as he recovers from a knee injury), Phil Romero and Erez Liebermann. The Black team was missing Dave Steinbruck for this contest. Black got out to a 28-23 lead at halftime and extended that lead to 37-25 a few minutes into the second half. But Blue showed they would not go down easy despite having only 5 guys and used a 10-0 run to cut the lead to 37-35. Unfortunately for Blue they ran out of gas late and Black pulled away to an "easy" 69-55 win. Blue was led by Zach Sicherman (and his limitless energy on both ends of the floor) who put up a team-high 22 points along with 11 rebounds. Jon Ackerman put up a 16 pts/6 rebs/4 assists line but was just 6/23 shooting for the game. Team captain Brian Maier added 8 points (on an efficient 4/9 shooting). Black was led by their big three of Siri Carpien (22 points/4 rebs/4 steals), TJ Farrell (17 points/9 rebs/4 assists including 5 more three-pointers) and Damian Jackson (11 points/6 rebs and another big time block). As usual, Gary Levine's contributions on both ends of the court had a big impact on the victory (11 points/12 rebs/4 assists). Sadly, it wasn't all good news for Black as we are now on Fisher-watch. As you'll soon learn, Mike Smulewitz scored this week and thus is handing over the mantle of last to score this season to Alex Fisher. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Alex scores but as I'm sure Smuly can attest to, the pressure builds the longer it goes and the more I talk about it. Good luck Alex (we're all rooting for you).
Red 58 - Orange 55: Orange came into this game at 2-0 and the only undefeated team in the league after knocking off Grey in their previous game. Meanwhile Red entered the contest at 2-1 which brings me to the other schedule quirk this season. As mentioned in a past recap, one team each week has to play twice in the same week (twice during the course of the season). Red played twice again this week so will have played 5 games in three weeks while all but one other team will have played only 3 times. Orange came into this game really hoping to make a statement against the Vegas-odds favorite to win it all. This game was a battle and came down to the very end of the game. Red got out ot a quick start thanks to Ben Carr, who scored 8 of the team's first 10 points (finishing with 13 points, 3 assists and 3 steals). This game went back and forth throughout the first half with Red taking a 4-point halftime lead (31-27). Every time either team went on a run the other team would answer. This game was tied at 35-35 (16:40 reamining), 42-42 (10:20 remaining) and 52-52 (3:03 remaining). Orange had three players notch double figure scoring including Ben Huber (15 points/13 rebs), Michael Gerstein (13 points) and Graham Haskell (11 points/9 rebs). Orange again had a significant edge on FT attempts but only shot 9/21 (42.9%) and also converted just 4/22 three point attempts (18.2%). Red also had 3 players share the main scoring load including Adam Hynes (20 points/5 rebs), Eric Sass (14 points/17 rebs) and the aforementioned Ben Carr. Jon Kanarek also contributed two very clutch threes late en route to 6 points. So the score is tied at 52-52 with 3:03 left and here is how it played out:
- Kanarek hits aforementioned clutch 3 (Red 55 - Orange 52)
- Orange misses two shots and Mike Borik gets fouled intentionally after rebound (makes 1/2 ft 56-52 lead)
- Orange draws up great inbound play to Gerstein for a layup (56-54 1:03 left)
- Turnover by Red on a pass from Adam to Kanarek
- Graham misses a layup but gets the offensive rebound. Misses the putback but is fouled with 43.8 seconds left. Graham makes the first FT but misses the second but Rory Schulman gets the offensive rebound (one of his 10 rebounds in the game), kicks it out to Jake who throws an errant pass that is stolen by Adam. Graham then attempts to trip Adam - Adam passes to Borik who throws a full court pass to Gabe who then misses a wide open layup. However, he gets the rebound, kicks it out to Adam who then gets intentionally fouled (and then lets Graham know how he felt about the trip (judge for yourself)
- Adam hit both FTs (58-55)
- Gerstein misses 3 but Orange gets the offensive rebound and Graham then misses a 3. Gabe gets the rebound and gets fouled with :07 left. Gabe misses the front end of a 1-and-1. Orange grabs the rebound and calls timeout to draw up a play. However, on the ensuing play, Red fouled intentionally before Orange had a chance to get off a three and the game would end with a 58-55 final socre.
Orange has a way of getting teams out of their comfort zone on the offensive end but unlike last week against Grey, they were unable to pull out the win. The loss moved Orange to 2-1 and the win gave Red a 3-1 record and first place overall.
Grey 63 - Gold 47: Grey was playing this game without center Mike Hughes while Gold had a full squad. Both teams came into the game with 1-1 records and neither wanted to drop below .500. Grey got out to a quick start and built a first half lead as big as 9 points. (Probably because of how Bachman defends 2-on-1s (🤣)
Grey extended their halftime lead thanks to an early run and led by 13 points with 20:00 remaining. But Gold then countered with a run of their own to cut the lead to 5 with 16:00 left. From that point on, Grey used a very efficient offense to pull away from Gold and secure the 63-47 victory. Mike "neighbor" Huberman was the only player on Gold to score double figures with 15 points followed by 8 apiece by Steve Bachman and Jason Narod and 6 points by Bryan Minasian. Grey was led by Shamar Mason who tallied 20 points, with many coming on his patented spin move in the lane (he also converted 7/7 from the FT line). Not to be outdone, Matt Ceccarelli scored 21 points and added 11 rebounds. Ed Seiden and Brandon Wendel added 8 points each in the winning effort. This game really came down to Grey shooting an efficient 48% while Gold shot a measly 31%. Grey moves to 2-1 while Gold now sits at 1-2.
Red 67 - Green 53: Green was seeking their first win of the season but that would be no easy task against the first place Red team, especially without top player Adam Bendik who is still dealing with a foot injury. However, Green made it very clear from the opening tipoff that they would not just roll over and accept defeat. Green got out to an early lead thanks in large part to the red hot shooting of Josh Goodhart. Goody was more like Greaty on this night, accounting for a team high 19 points (including 3/5 from deep). If it was Goody that was handling the outside shooting then it was big man Dan Amsellem controlling the paint for Green. Dan would finish the game with 12 points and 19 rebounds (including 8 offensive boards which was as many rebounds as anyone on Red had on the evening). This game was tight right up until late when Red started to pull away thanks to several steals and fast breaks by Colin Neff. It was a balanced scoring effort for Red with Colin leading the way with 18 points, 8 rebs and 4 assists. Eric Sass added 16 points and 8 rebs while Adam Hynes contributed 11 points. But perhaps most important of all was the big time three by "The Dentist" Mike Smulewitz, who drilled his first shot of the season and removed the title of last player to score like he was extracting a tooth (The ball is in your court now Alex Fisher). Seth Niessen and Jordan Perlmutter each contributed 8 points in the losing effort for Green. The loss drops Green to 0-4 while Red sits atop the standings at 4-1.
Week 4 slate:
Gold (1-2) vs Red (4-1)
Grey (2-1) vs Blue (1-2)
Gold (1-2) vs Orange (2-1)
Green (0-4) vs Black (2-1)
Stat leaders:
Points:
Siri Carpien - 21 ppg
Eric Sass - 20.2 ppg
Matt Ceccarelli - 19.3 ppg
Rebounds:
Dan Amsellem - 17 rpg
Eric Sass - 13.2 rpg
Zach Sicherman - 12.7 rpg
Assists:
Ben Carr/Phil Romero - 5 apg
Jason Narod/Erez Liebermann - 4 apg
Steals:
Colin Neff/David Steinbruck - 3.5 spg
Siri Carpien - 3.3 spg
Blocks:
Damian Jackson - 2 bpg (only guy averaging more than 1)
Three-pointers made:
TJ Farrell - 12
Michael Gerstein - 9
Michael Huberman/Steve Bachman - 8
