Montreal HEAT Take Screech Out of HAFTR HAWKS, 52-37

Opening day of the Memphis Invitational featured the #10 HAFTR Hawks and the #7 Montreal HEAT. As most 7 versus 10 are close and intense, this game was no different. The game started out a bit slow, with the score just 3-0 Heat by the 5-minute mark. The quarter continued at this pace, ending with Montreal leading 11-6. During this quarter, Yaacov Ohayon had an incredible no-look pass to Zac Levy who put up an easy layup for 2 points.

The Heat came strong out of the first quarter break, scoring the first points of the second quarter, extending their lead to 7. This lead could partly be attributed to their domination of the backboard, beating HAFTR 11 rebounds to 6 rebounds. The second quarter was back and forth between the two teams, each trading off scores, culminating in a score at halftime of 23-17 in favor of the Heat. The lead scorer going into the locker room was Montreal’s Simon Alloul with 9 points.

Montreal continued their domination of the rebound game, racking their total up to 19 rebounds just 2 minutes into the third quarter. Simon Alloul continued building the lead for the Heat, reaching a total of 19 points by the end of the third quarter. The two teams were even in the third quarter, which ended with a score of 37-31 still in favor of the Heat.

HAFTR came into the fourth quarter ready to shrink the deficit and come back, scoring the first points of the quarter, cutting the Heat’s lead down to 4. HAFTR’s Ness Salem scored critical back-to-back 2 pointers halfway through the fourth, keeping the Montreal lead at 6. But Yaacov Ohayon responded with his own critical 4 points in a row to push his team’s lead to 8 with 4 minutes left in the fourth. From there Montreal was able to keep HAFTR under control, and were able to coast to victory with a final score of 52-37.

The Heat had many star players in the game including Yaacov Ohayon with 11 points and 12 rebounds, and player of the game Simon Alloul with 21 points and 10 rebounds. The lead scorer for the Hawks was Ness Salem with 11 points. The Heat, coming off that incredible performance, will be moving on to compete in Tier I, while the Hawks will slide down into Tier 2.