11-8-2014 | In Battle of Florida, RASG Warriors Calm Weinbaum Storm, 45-38

11-8-2014 | In Battle of Florida, RASG Warriors Calm Weinbaum Storm, 45-38

By: Shmuel Perl

In the first game on Saturday night, the Weinbaum Storm faced the Hebrew Academy Warriors in the battle for South Florida. Both teams came out aggressive and played with emotion. Two Jonah Wachtel layups put RASG up four early, but Yitzchak Kaminetzky responded with a three for Weinbaum. Morris Esformes converted on a three point play, but Weinbaum came back with a nice jumper to keep it close. Once again, the Warriors started clicking on offense, going on a 5-0 run behind the play of their guards. Weinbaum came back with a 4-0 run of their own, both teams scored again, and at the end of the first the score was 14-11 in favor of RASG.

A Yosef Hochner basket opened the scoring in the second, but five quick points from Dani Baratz tied up the game. A Yitzchak Kamintezky free throw gave Weinbaum its first lead with five minutes left in the half. Weinbaum hit two more free throws, and an Evan Jacoby layup made the lead five. A Chad Masin score, followed by a Pesach Bixon three pointer cut the Weinbaum lead to two points with 16 seconds left in the half. Evan Jacoby hit a free throw, and at the end of the half the score was 24-21 in favor of Weinbaum.

A Jacob Danis free throw put Weinbaum up by four to start the third quarter, but an Aharon Diveroli layup and a Chad Masin free throw cut it to one. Weinbaum scored again, but a Morris Esformes deep three tied it up once again. Jared Stern hit a three for Weinbaum, but Chad Masin responded by hitting one from downtown on the other end. With little time remaining in the quarter, Aharon Diveroli made a fast-break layup to give RASG a 32-30 lead going into the fourth quarter.

The Storm hit two free throws to start the fourth quarter and tie up the game at 32. Both teams hit two free throws and with six minutes left the game was still tied. Two RASG free throws put them back ahead, but two Storm free throws tied it back up. Morris Esformes hit a mid-range jumper to put the Warriors up, but two Weinbaum free throws once again tie things up. With less than two minutes left, Chad Masin drove to the basket, made a tough layup, and drew the foul. He then sunk the free throw to put the Warriors up by 3 points. As time began to wind down, the Storm went into desperation mode, fouling every time RASG got the ball. However, the Storm could not convert on offense, and RASG made their free throws down the stretch to seal the game. The final score was 45-38 in favor of RASG. The high scorer for the Warriors was Chad Masin with 13 points, and Evan Jacoby led the Storm with 10 points.