At the end of October, TABC’s varsity basketball team traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to take part in the Cooper Invitational Tournament. After four consecutive days of basketball, TABC finished in third place.
Fifteen Jewish basketball teams flew into Memphis for a competitive week. Each team was assigned a rank and TABC entered as a two seed. Junior Ezra Baron, one of TABC’s talented players, took pleasure in noting that “we were highly regarded going in.”
Before leaving, the players expressed great excitement about their trip. Coach Oswald (“Oz”) Cross said, “I believed that it would be a great bonding experience for all my players.” He was certainly correct about that.
In the first game of the tournament, TABC played AJA, a school from Atlanta; our team won by a score exceeding 30 points. First-year player Tzvi Motechin came off the bench to score twelve points in the blowout win. Coach Oz was very “impressed” by our boys’ “teamwork.”
Next, our team faced CESJDS from Maryland, whom they beat by eight points. Both Baron and Junior Avery Stepner believed the team could have won by a wider margin, but were nonetheless happy to get the win. Noam Kinderleherer, a key junior player, noted that “it was a tight game throughout, but the leadership of Yehuda Mirwis was excellent.”
The team’s next game was the semifinals and sadly, it was also their last real game of the tournament, as they lost to Shaarei Torah from Brooklyn by seven points. Coach Oz decided to change strategy for this match: “Our first two games were against inferior teams, so we played a zone defense; however, against Shaarei Torah, we switched to man-to-man in an attempt to slow down their high-powered offense.”
Unfortunately, Cross’ game plan did not work and the team lost. According to Stepner, “we definitely could have worked better as a team and we missed too many open shots.”
After their loss, the team got the chance to play a consolation game against Hillel, a school from Deal, New Jersey. TABC won this match by 46 points; the high-scoring offense was led by Daniel Gopin, who scored seven three-pointers.
The team was happy to get the win to finish their tournament run. Even still, Baron noted that “we could have done better and hopefully we will learn from this experience.”
Besides the games themselves, the team participated in multiple different activities that weekend. For example, our boys went to see the Memphis University basketball team practice. They sat courtside while watching players such as NCAA star James Wiseman perform electrifying dunks.
Each member of the TABC team also got to shake the hand of Coach Penny Hardaway, former NBA all-star. Kinderlehrer said that “this was one of my coolest basketball moments ever, seeing such amazing talent up close.”
On Shabbos, a hypnotist came to perform for all of the teams and provide entertainment. Baron was actually one of the fifteen participants whom the performer tried to hypnotize. “Although the hypnosis did not work on me, I still found the other players’ actions hilarious,” he said.
Otherwise, the team chilled in the hotel, ate, and davened together.
The extracurricular activities and experiences definitely brought the entire team closer together. New friendships were formed; hopefully, this will translate to incredible on-court chemistry.
From the basketball games to the team bonding through different activities, the tournament was a success. Even though the team did not reach the place they wanted in the tournament, they gave it their all.