Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway basketball has tournament success

The Hebrew Academy of the Five Town and Rockaway High School boys’ and girls’ basketball teams took part in the 32nd annual Beth Tfiloh/Weiner tournament in Baltimore Dec. 8 to 9.

The tournament included teams from across the United States and the world, including Yavneh from Dallas, Chat from Toronto and Boyar from Jerusalem. Along with the hoops, the boys and girls spent Shabbos bonding together with their teammates and making new friendships with players on the other teams.  

The HAFTR boys earned the No. 1 seed in the playoffs based on their winning play in the preliminary games. By beating the home team, Beth Tfiloh, the Boyar team from Israel, Chat from Toronto and the defending champions and No. 1 ranked team Yavneh from Dallas, the Hawks advanced to the championship game on Saturday night.

In front of a packed crowd rooting for the home Beth Tfiloh Warriors, HAFTR, down seven points with less than four minutes remaining in regulation, rallied with a 22-4 run through two overtime periods for a thrilling 59-48 victory to take home the championship banner. 

The Lady Hawks played very well in the preliminary games and earned a berth in the semifinals against Yavneh. The girls fell short in that game, however they rallied to pull out an exciting double overtime one-point victory against the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County to capture the third place trophy.

Gabe Shamama the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, Benjamin Kornblum nailed 25 three-pointers and Matthew Jedwab and Jessie Kornblum were named first team All Stars. Adam Herman and Megan Spivak were second team All Stars. Special character awards went to Abigail Appel, Noah Nierenberg, and team Manager Yossi Tahalov for outstanding sportsmanship.