As juniors Ari Einhorn and Tani Simkovich introduced the starting members of the varsity boys basketball team, the Lions crowd cheered and clapped while each player did their unique handshake with senior Geoffrey Rosen. The energy stayed high all night with students and parents encouraging and motivating players after a made shot or steal.
On Dec. 10, the JDS boys varsity basketball team fell to the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy Cougars at home with a final score of 73-42. This loss put the Lions’ record at 4-2 in conference, and 6-4 out of conference.
The first quarter of the game started out slow for JDS, with the team only scoring two points in the first five minutes, scored by junior Caden Mont. The quarter ended with Berman up 23-9. Junior Leo Steindecker believes that the team had a slow start to the game, especially on the defensive end.
“We definitely have got to pick up our defensive help,” Steindecker said. “We’ve been focusing on it all year, and it just wasn’t there today. They outworked us, out hustled us. We’ve got to develop that attitude: ‘outwork that guy on the other end.’”
The next three quarters proceeded in a similar fashion, as the Cougars continued to outscore and outrebound the Lions. The main scorers for JDS included juniors Cyrus Blumenthal and Jacob Lipsky who each had nine points.
At the end of the first half the score was 44-22, with Berman in the lead. During their half time meeting, the Lions discussed the need to prevent turnovers and stop Berman in transition in the final two quarters.
“When you turn the ball over it means that you’re not getting into your stuff,” head coach Ryan Eskow said. “We’ve created an identity and we’re very good at playing within that identity, but today we just didn’t.”
Sophomore Dylan Shank believes that the team let the pressure of the game get to them, which caused them to panic and force bad plays and passes. Shank believes that while the pressure JDS faced against competitive teams in the Memphis Yeshiva Invitational Tournament helped the team bond and prepare for these types of games, it wasn’t enough to secure a win.
“There were a few teams in Memphis that would pressure us, and it allowed us to get more cohesive as a team and learn how to play together,” Shank said.
In the third quarter, JDS scored 13 points, often scoring directly after Berman made a basket. This included two three pointers from Shank and three made free throws split between Blumenthal and Steindecker.
Regardless of the outcome, Eskow is proud of his team and thinks the game was crucial in his team’s development.
“Every time that our team is together we move a step forward,” Eskow said. “I don’t look at today like a step back. We got beat by a team that was better than us tonight, but the thing that I love about this team is that we learn together, we succeed together, we fail together. And I think this is another learning experience.”
