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Subscribe to our NewsletterWelcome to 2025...hope everyone had a great holiday break and Happy New Year to all. But before we move on to 2025, there were games in the week leading up to the new year that we have not yet discussed. Having just finished up the 8 days of Hanukkah, which celebrate several miracles for the Maccabees, it seemed fitting that this last week of the 2024 JCC hoops calendar would also feature a few "miracles." And no "miracle" might have been as big and meaningful as Alex Fisher finally getting his first points of the season (though in reality the miracle is that it took this long). Thankfully I can stop talking about this now though it will mean having to dig deeper for new material.
But as you'll see from the upcoming game recaps (especially from Monday night), this was not the only "miracle" to occur this week...
Green 57 - Grey 48: Green came into this game as the lone winless team (0-5) while 5-time defending champion Grey was sitting at 3-1. So naturally the oddsmakers had Grey as heavy favorites. However, that is why they play the games. And based on what this writer witnessed in defeat, Green is likely to win several more games as the season rolls on. Last week was the first appearance by Kabba (Adam Bendik replacement) for the Green squad and you could tell he was getting used to his new teammates as well as the JCC league. This week we saw a different Kabba, leading Green with 19 points and 6 rebounds (including three treys in the first half). The Green team came out of the gates quickly in this game opening up an early 6-0 lead but Grey answered with a 7-0 run to take a 7-6 lead mostly thanks to the offensive exploits of Shamar Mason, especially from 3-pt range. Shamar came into this game having only hit 3/20 three-pointers to start the season but went 6/9 on this night en route to 20 points. The rest of the first half played out similarly with each team going on runs eventually resulting in a 31-30 Grey lead at half. Grey switched to a 3-2 zone to start the second half and Green took advantage of the gaps with Jordan Perlmutter hitting some midrange jumpers (8 points), Andrew Merel driving and finishing (13 points), Josh Goodhart continuing his red-hot shooting from deep (2-2 for the game and up to 57% for the season) and Dan Amsellem doing what he does on the glass (adding 13 more boards and still easily leading the league with 15.8 rpg). But Grey continued to fight back in the second half thanks in large part to the clutch shooting from Brandon Wendel (3/3 from deep) and managed to cut the lead down to 2 with 5:00 left. Grey had several opportunities to either tie or take the lead but the shots just weren't falling on this night. Seth Niessen then hit a huge and-1 to stretch the lead to five and they cruised to the 9-point victory. Matt Ceccarelli finally had an off night shooting (3/21) and Ed Seiden contributed zero points (0/6 shooting). The win moves Green to 1-5 while Grey drops to 3-2.
Blue 59 - Orange 50: Like the earlier game, this game featured teams seemingly headed in oppostie directions in the standings. Blue was 1-3 while Orange was 3-1. But on this night on Nathanson Court, upsets were in the air. Blue was very happy to see Adam Driansky make his season and JCC debut though they would be without the services of Mike Pollack. It didn't take long for Adam (13 points including 3/4 from 3-point range and 3 steals) to make his presence felt as he helped Blue jump out to a quick 12-3 lead. But over the next 10 minutes of action the Blue team went ice cold, managing just 2 points while Orange found their footing and built a 16-14 lead with 7:00 left in the half. The half would end with Orange leading 22-21 and the two teams continued to trade baskets with Blue building a 1-point lead midway through the second half. Blue captain Brian Maier (14 points on 6/7 shooting) sparked his team as part of a 10-2 run, building a 9-point lead which they would not squander the rest of the way. Phil Romero had a great all-around game with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists while running mate Jon Ackerman contributed 11 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists. This was a strange game for the Orange team as Ben Huber, Rory Schulman and Jake Lillie combined for just 10 points. Graham Haskell picked up the offesnsive slack for Orange leading the team with 14 points and 17 rebounds. Also contibuting double digits for Orange were Michael Gerstein and Matt Birnbach (who added 11 and 10 points respectively). There were cheers of Air Schosheim on this evening but not because his game was reminding anyone of Michael Jordan. Alex had 4 airballs in the game and going forward will no longer be warming up on the 7-foot side baskets. The win moved Blue to 2-3 (with another game two days later) while Orange dropped to 3-2.
Black 73 - Gold 50: Gold came into the game on a 3-game losing streak while Black was riding a 2-game winning streak. If this game had been played on upset-Monday maybe Gold would've had a chance. But sadly for them this game took place on Wednesday and it was ugly. Gold was playing without Steve Bachman while Black was missing Andrew Mandelbaum. To get a little insight into how this game went I checked in with my iPhone and asked Siri, show me basketball dominance. Well Siri responded with 30 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and 2 steals. Siri had the most dominant performance I've seen on tape this season getting whatever shots he wanted and continually backing down an undersized Andre Lewis and hitting bank shots. Damian Jackson added 13 points and 9 rebounds while Gary Levine contributed 10 points and 7 rebounds. TJ Farrell shockingly didn't hit a single three though he only attempted 3 on the game (though Matt was having a hard time determining if certain shots were by TJ or TJ Junior -Shane Calendar). As mentioned earlier, Alex Fisher is off the schneid and also added 5 rebounds and a block. Black built a double digit lead going into half and Gold really only had one run where they cut the lead to fewer than 10 points thanks in large part to Cory Rothbort, who hit three shots during this run. Bryan Minasian was his normal dominant self on the glass with 16 rebounds. Gold had 3 players score in double digits with Michael Huberman leading the way with 13 points followed by Andre Lewis with 11 and Jason Narod with 10. Gold continues to struggle shooting-wise espscially from deep where they went 4-23. The loss dropped Gold to 1-5 and tied for last place with Green. Meanwhile, Black looks like they have something to prove after the way last season went and now sits second in the standings at 4-1.
Red 61 - Blue 52: The final game played in 2024 pitted Blue, looking to build on the momentum from their victory against Orange just two days earlier, taking on the 5-1 Red team. Blue was missing Jon Ackerman, Mike Pollack, David Kobiashvili, Adam Driansky and Erez Liebermann but did have replacements in King Lo, Hemal Patel and Nolan Gilbert. Meanwhile, Red was missing Mike Borik for this contest. Despite being shorthanded, Blue put up quite a fight against the top team in the league. Red took a 32-23 halftime lead and maintained a 9-13 point lead for most of the second half though thanks to back-to-back threes by Hemal late in the game managed to cut the lead to 7. However the outcome was never really in doubt in this contest. Red was led by their twin towers, with Eric Sass tallying 21 points and 16 rebounds and Adam Hynes logging 17 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Colin Neff added 11 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists in another superb all around effort. Strangely the Red team went 0/7 from deep and only 9/19 from the FT line. For Blue, the points came from 4 players in double digits, 2 regular team members (Phil Romero scored 13 and Zach Sicherman added 10 points/10 rebs) and 2 fill-ins (Hemal scored 12 and Nolan had 11). While Red maintains their dominance in the JCC league, the same cannot be said for team members in the Black Birch/Marion fantasy football league (shoutout to my brother-in-law Josh Safchik for taking down Sass/Hynes/Kanarek and others). The win keeps Red atop the standings at 6-1 while the loss dropped Blue to 2-4.
Current Standings:
Red 6-1
Black 4-1
Grey 3-2
Orange 3-2
Blue 2-4
Gold 1-5
Green 1-5
Statistics Leaders
Scoring: Siri Carpien 22 ppg
Eric Sass 20.2 ppg
Adam Hynes 18.2 ppg
Rebounds: Dan Amsellem 15.8 rpg
Eric Sass 13.2 rpg
Colin Neff 12.0 rpg
Assists: Phil Romero 4.5 apg
Jon Ackerman 4.2 apg
Ben Carr 4.0 apg
Steals: Siri Carpien/Adam Driansky 3 spg
Colin Neff 2.7 spg
Blocks: Mike Hughes 1.7 bpg
Phil Romero 1.5 bpg
Eric Sass 1.3 bpg
Three-pointers made: Michael Huberman 18
TJ Farrell/Michael Gerstein 15
Looking forward to seeing everyone back out on the court after the long layoff. Good luck to all
