March Madness Hits YU: Lion Dominate Sarachek Tournament

Lions Capture Yeshiva League Title at Meadowlands

A balanced offense and stifling defense led the MTA Lions to the championship of the eighteenth annual Red Sarachek Tournament at Yeshiva University. The team won all three of its games by at least 12 points, topping Hillel Community High School of Miami 46-27 in the title game.

The 18-team, five-day tournament drew packed crowds at the Max Stern Athletic Center for many of the games including Sunday's semifinal games, the championship game on Monday and all four game played by Talmudic Academy of Baltimore. The TA Warriors were led by the junior sensation Tamir Goodman, who has verbally committed to attend the University of Maryland on a basketball scholarship.

Goodman set Sarachek records for most points in a game (53), tournament (143) and highest scoring average (35.8 ppg) for the Warriors, who finished in seventh place. His 53 points came in what observers called the most exciting game in the tournament's eight-year history, a 90-88 overtime loss to Valley Torah High School in the quarterfinals, Goodman's pull-up three-pointer sent the game into overtime, but the Wolfpack's pressure defense helped Valley Torah win in the extra session.

It was the fifth time the host school appeared in the title game and third championship for MTA, which also won the Sarachek Tournament in 1992 and 1995.

In the quarterfinals, the Lions beat Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy of Kansas City, 53-41. In the semifinals they avenged their loss in last year's championship game by defeating YULA 60-44.

Jeremy Niess was the tournament MVP and MTA senior starters Alan Shane and Moldy Blum were named tournament all-stars.

The Tier II winner was Ira Crown Jewish Academy of Chicago. The Aces defeated Fuchs Beit Safer Mizrachi of Cleveland. Hebrew Academy of Miami beat Hebrew Academy of Greater Washington to win the Tier III title.

Two days after their Sarachek Tournament victory, the Lions capped off an 18-3 season with a 38-34 victory over HAFTR at the Meadowlands to win the 1999 Metropolitan Yeshiva High School Basketball League title. It was the school's first league championship since 1992.

Mordy Blum paced the team with 14 points and was the game MVP. Junior Mordy Faber hit the games only three-pointer with 54 seconds remaining to put MTA ahead to stay.

Tournament All-Stars

Shmuel Bergman, Cooper Memphis

Ari Stein, Block St. Louis

Zev Reinitz, Akiva-Detroit

Daniel Medioni, Shalhevet

Ben Engelhart, HA Washington

Jon Fox, H A Miami

Ori Goldstein, Or Chaim-Toronto

Philip Serebrenick, Yeshiva-Atlanta

Natan Schwartz, Fuchs-Cleveland

Jeremy Fine, Ida Crown

Jaime Dweck, Magen David

Jason Kollander, HAFTR

Dan Krashin, Brand-Kansas City

Moshe Adler, YULA

Tzvi Wachsman, Valley Torah

Mike Courtney, Hillel-Miami

Mordy Blum, MTA

Alan Shane, MTA

Tier I MVP - Jeremy Niess, MTA

Tier II MVP - Adam Braun, Ida Crown

Tier III MVP - Greg Katzenstein, HA Miami

All-Tournament Team

Tamir Goodman, TA Baltimore

Avi Hami, YULA

Edward Gerov, Valley Torah

Dani Bensimon, Hillel-Miami

Jeremy Niess, MTA