The 5th Annual Willner Tournament
Mr. Ari Braun, YR Director of Athletics
The 5th Annual Willner Tournament took place February 22-25, 2007 with Yeshivat Rambam hosting teams from Atlanta, New Jersey, and Silver Spring, MD. The teams arrived in Baltimore on Thursday afternoon and, after dinner provided by Tov Pizza and served by the Willner/Pottash family, the games were underway.
The opening game of the tournament, between Torah Academy of Bergen County (TABC) and the Melvin J Berman Hebrew Academy, really set the stage for an exciting couple of days. The game was close most of the way but TABC pulled out a 7 point victory.
With the gym filled to capacity with students, parents, and fans, the home team took the court against Yeshiva Atlanta. The Red Storm put on a show, taking a 24-8 lead after the first quarter, and never looked back winning 69-32. Junior Shaya Katz led the way with 18 points, including 4 3-pointers, and sophomores Shulie Hochman and Jeremy Sykes each added 10 points.
In the early game on Friday the Hebrew Academy easily handled Yeshiva Atlanta.
Then came the first of two classic battles between Rambam and TABC. The senior girls took over as the announcers for the starting lineups and really got everyone pumped up. Then the players took it from there. It was intense from the outset and the game was close throughout with neither team being able to pull away. Rambam led 9-7 after the 1 st quarter, 21-18 at halftime, and was trailing 38-36 heading into the fourth quarter. After giving up 20 points in the 3 rd quarter, the most in any quarter of the tournament, the Rambam defense held TABC to just 8 in the 4th quarter. However the Red Storm still trailed by one with under a minute to go and then Shaya Katz went to work. As the team came out of a timeout they cleared the right side of the floor for him and drove past his man scored the basket and got fouled. Despite missing the ensuing free throw the defense held two more times and Shaya made 3 more free throws to lead Rambam to a 50-46 victory.
The teams enjoyed a very nice Shabbat together, highlighted by a special guest speaker on Friday night, Israeli professional basketball player, and Baltimore native, Tamir Goodman.
On Motzei Shabbat, after TABC beat Yeshiva Atlanta, came the feature game of the tournament. With another capacity crowd on hand Rambam took on the Hebrew Academy. Despite having to shuffle the lineup a bit, the Red Storm came out determined to shut them down defensively and they did just that holding the Hebrew Academy to just 15 points in the first half. As the first half was coming to an end, sophomore Jeremy Sykes nailed a three pointer to give Rambam a commanding 24-15 lead. But the best was yet to come. The 3 rd quarter was the best quarter of the year for the Red Storm defense holding the Hebrew Academy, astonishingly, to no baskets and only 2 points on 2 foul shots. After three quarters the score was Rambam 35, Hebrew Academy 17. The 4 th quarter was just a formality at that point as Rambam pulled away for a 47-27 victory, one of the most dominating performances of the year. Shaya and Yisrael Katz led the way defensively and Shulie Hochman and Jeremy Sykes, 11 points each, led on offense.
On Sunday morning Rambam matched up with TABC, this time in the tournament Championship Game. It was another great game very similar in almost every way to the 1 st one. Both teams played hard and neither was able to pull away. Rambam acquired a 44-37 lead late in the 4 th quarter, but was unable to make it stick as TABC came right back to take a 45-44 lead. Again Rambam turned to Shaya Katz who again came through with a big basket to take a 46-45 lead. Shaya added a free throw with 12 seconds to play to make it 47-45 but with just 2 seconds remaining TABC hit a three-pointer to lead 48-47. Rambam was unable to score and TABC won the championship.
Three Rambam players made it to the All-Tournament Team, Shaya Katz, Yisrael Katz, and Jeremy Sykes. Senior Yitzy Schleifer also won the 3 point shootout.
The Red Storm would like to thank all the students, parents, and fans who came out to the games. Thanks also to all the sponsors and volunteers who helped make this such a wonderful tournament. Of course special thanks go to Mrs. Sandy Willner and Mr. Sam and Mrs. Karen Pottash, without whom this tournament would not be possible.
Thank You From Mrs. Sandy Willner & Family
On this 5th Anniversary of the Willner Varsity Boys Basketball Tournament, we would like to again thank Yeshivat Rambam's administration, school staff, parents and students for their overwhelming support of this event.
Although we did not win the trophy this year, we were still winners. We won three out of four games and lost the fourth game within seconds of the buzzer. The learning, camaraderie, and sportsmanship displayed by all was truly outstanding.
The consensus from all the team participants and spectators was that an incredible weekend was had by all despite the bad weather at the end. The teams were very impressed with the wonderful hospitality extended to them by host families and all those representing the school.
Thank you all for making this weekend so special and an added tribute to the memory of Mr. Gerald Willner z”l memory, better known as Zaidie.