After a quick pass from a teammate, senior Cyrus Blumenthal rose into the air, launching a mid-range shot that tied the game 2-2 and subsequently sparked an eruption of cheer from the packed gymnasium. On Jan. 11, 2025, the Berman Cougars prevailed 56-42 against their rivals, the JDS Lions.
The Lions won the tip-off, and the two teams began displaying strong defensive efforts, quickly resulting in a block from JDS senior Matty Stilman. On the other end of the court, Cougars power-forward Yaakov Lesnoy responded, blocking Matty’s layup attempt.
“We were focused on the defensive end,” senior Micha Goldrich said. “Offense is gonna come naturally, it comes with the flow. You just gotta read it. So we can’t really prepare as much specifically against a certain team in terms of [offensive] mistakes.”
One player who was able to blow through the Lion’s defense because of his quick decisiveness was Berman Freshman Rueven Antine, who dropped an efficient7 points to contribute to Berman’s run early in the game.
Once shots started falling for both teams, the persistent defensive and offensive efforts for both teams fluctuated. Despite keeping Berman’s early lead to 7-5, the Cougars succeeded in penetrating the paint several times.
The quarter concluded with the score being 18-9 in the Cougar’s favor, and with a significant hole the Lions needed to dig themselves out of in order to win.
As the second quarter began, Berman was able to establish a clear scoring gap by capitalizing on quick layup opportunities and deep threes from Cougar point guard Alex August. JDS’ response was partially successful as Blumenthal and senior guard Caden Mont nailed three point shots. Even so, the divide between these two teams’ scores consistently remained in double digits.
As the game progressed, Goldrich noticed that the team was under performing in comparison to their previous match-up at home.
“We were shaken up,” Goldrich said. “There’s a lot of excuses to make, but you could definitely tell that this was one of our first games back from break, and we just kind of looked disorganized. We weren’t sticking our shots, but honestly, the energy’s there.”
During the second half, Goldrich’s description of high energy was felt. Both teams kept their feet on the gas as their defensive aggression prevented successful offense for either team. To end the scoring drought, Blumenthal connected on a three pointer to which the Lions fans roared. Then, Sophomore guard Theo Pearlman followed his teammate’s example by knocking down a corner three.
Throughout the course of the game, the Lions struggled with rebounding and were hurt on opportunities after offensive boards that the Cougars were given.
“[Our] big focus is rebounding, [and] second chance points,” Blumenthal said. “I thought we kind of messed that up today. It’s tough in a game like this to get rebounds because you get the first stop and you think you’re done, but then, obviously, you keep fighting, [and] they keep fighting for the ball. It’s hard to get those boards.”
The Lions remained in reach of the Cougars towards the end of the third quarter thanks to some tough shots from Pearlman and Blumenthal in tandem with strong all around defense. However, August’s step back three with less than a second left kept ended the quarter 42-33.
The fourth quarter was a tale of free throws. Both teams had fouled into the bonus and the aggression by both teams provoked significant intermittent fouling. This led to many free throw opportunities for both teams.
“We were down by a good bit so everyone was trying to be extra aggressive on offense,” Pearlman said. “I think that led us to get to the free throw line more… We were being aggressive at that point in the game.”
Lion’s head coach Ryan Eskow was aware of the offensive threat that guard and high scorer August posed, and believed that senior Caden Mont was up to the task of defending him.
“Caden, his defense against Alex is probably the toughest covering in the entire league,” Eskow said. “And he did a tremendous job.”
Multiple members of the Lions were not deterred by their performance on Saturday night.
“We lost to them four years in a row, but we proved that we can beat them once,” Goldrich said. “Absolutely, we can do it again. It does not characterize us, it does not define us. Every team loses and we know we can come back from it. We know what we’re capable of.”
In terms of their season, the Lions will continue to play through the regular season and into the playoffs. According to Eskow, this loss acts as motivation for the team to work harder at removing the rust that has developed over winter break.
“I think it’s a turning point, I think that we’re in the toughest part of our season,” Eskow said. “We gotta learn the lessons so that we can get on a run.”
