SPORTS

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Tight Wins

Three close championship games marked the finale
of the B'nai B'rith men's basketball season.

ROBERT ELLENSTEIN

Special to The Jewish News

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48

FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1991

Photo by Glenn Triest

T

here are 19 written
rules regulating the
1991 B'nai B'rith
Basketball League. But the
unwritten one — perhaps the
most important — is that all
teams will compete fiercely
and all players will have fun.
Last Sunday, the playoffs
brought perhaps the most ex-
citing finish in league history.
Each of the three champion-
ship games were decided by
no more than one basket.
The A League, which tradi-
tionally has the top players,
presented a war of attrition
between two-time defending
champion Downtown Fox 1
and second-place Detroit 1.
But despite being a heavy
underdog, 41-year-old Steven
Rosen and Detroit 1 upset the
younger Downtown Fox
squad, 47-46.
"Three years ago, we had
won eight championships in a
row," Dr. Rosen said. "I
thought we'd never win it
again!'
Dr. Rosen, who had 17
points in Sunday's champion-
ship game, said the win was
especially gratifying because
it followed an all-night on-call
for the doctor.
"I thought I was going to
pass out after the first game,"
Dr. Rosen said. "I don't know
how many more years this
team has left.
"Now the hardest part of
the day starts!' he said after
the game. "I have to go back
to work."
The game had more than its
share of excitement. With
plenty of lead changes and
clutch three-point shooting,
the Detroit team took a 25-22
lead into halftime. And with
two minutes left in the con-
test, Detroit went into a stall
with a 45-43 lead.
But Downtown Fox fought
back and found itself with the
ball, down by one point with
20 seconds remaining. But it
failed to capitalize. An errant
pass gave Downtown Fox one
last attempt, but the team
missed two shots at the tail
end of a three-on-one fast
break and Detroit 1 danced
off the floor with a victory.
"It was one of the best
games I've ever seen," said
league director Marty
Melton. "The old guys beat
the young guys. It was com-

Downtown Fox 2 defeated Keidan 33-30 in overtime in a semi-final game.

petitive all the way down to
the wire!'
But that could be said about
all three championship
games. In the B League
finale, Gary Yashinsky cap-
ped a magnificent perfor-
mance by nailing a short
baseline jump shot with five
seconds left to lift Downtown -
Fox 3 to a 37-36 victory over
Downtown Fox 2.

"We beat these guys last
week by 12," said Kevin Gold-
berg, whose 20 points led the
victors. "They tried to get me
the ball but someone else was
going to have to take the last
shot, and Gary did!'
Downtown Fox 3 won its
third straight championship,
but its first in the B League.
And it had to beat a very per-
sistent Downtown Fox 2
squad that qualified for the
playoffs for the fourth
straight season.
In the C League, Brother-
hood 6 utilized a balanced
scoring attack to outlast
Zager Stone, 41-39. A last-
second shot that would have
tied the score bounced off the
rim.
With one minute left,
Brotherhood 6 decided to sit
on the ball and a 40-35 lead,
but that strategy backfired
when the team missed its foul
shots.

"We figured we could win
with free throws but we miss-
ed a lot," said Dave Hochberg,
Brotherhood's captain.
"Zager Stone had a chance to
win it at the end, but their
shot didn't drop."
Hochberg said his team was
looking forward to moving up
to the B League next season,
and raising its level of play.
Winners from the cham-
pionship games and in-
dividual divisional play took
home engraved trophies. And

Some 250 players
leave their beepers
on the table to
have a good time

each team had its name plac-
ed on a giant golden basket-
ball, similar to the two recent-
ly picked up by the World
Champion Detroit Pistons.
The league is made up of
nearly 250 players on 24
teams representing various
B'nai B'rith lodges. Divisions
are determined by the ex-
ecutive board: Melton, Joel
Kaufman, Gary Zeitlin and
Gary Klinger.
The league was founded by
Melton 16 years ago, holding
its games at the YMCA. But
as the roster of teams increas-
ed annually, the games were