martial
fitness
ARTS
dance
SPORTS
sports
It’s A Three-Peat
For Pisgah-Zeiger
STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
T
GYMNASTICS
SCHOOL
kickboxing
DROP-OFF
BREAK
CAMPS
PARTIES
BABY
CHILDCARE
& TOTS
SWIM
PRESCHOOL
yoga
TENNIS
play
+MORE!
DATES
TO REGISTER FOR OUR KIDS PROGRAMS VISIT:
FRANKLINCLUB.COM/KIDS
248.352.8000 ext. 314
34
April 5 • 2018
29350 Northwestern Hwy
jn
Southfield, Mi 48034
here was no Cinderella story
this season in the B’nai B’rith
basketball league.
Pisgah-Zeiger won its third straight
league championship, beating
Brotherhood No. 3 53-49 on March 25
in a hotly contested playoff title game
at the Jewish Community Center in
West Bloomfield.
“It was like the Kansas-Duke game
in the NCAA tournament … a heavy-
weight title fight,” said Pisgah-Zeiger
player-coach Rick Sherline. “The lead
changed hands four or five times in
the second half. Both teams made
clutch shot after clutch shot.”
Close games were the rule and not
the exception this season for these
two teams. They played three times,
and the largest margin of victory was
8 points.
Brotherhood No. 3 won 63-57 on
Jan. 14 and Pisgah-Zeiger won 51-43
on Feb. 18 in regular-season games.
The teams each went 8-2 in the
regular season and tied for first place
in the six-team league.
The 2-point difference in their head-
to-head games gave Pisgah-Zeiger the
No. 1 seed in the playoffs. Brotherhood
No. 3 was the No. 2 seed. Third-place
Brotherhood No. 2 and fourth-place
Brotherhood No. 1 also made the play-
offs as No. 3 and No. 4 seeds.
Familiarity and similar physical
attributes played roles in the closeness
of the Pisgah-Zeiger vs. Brotherhood
3 games.
Brotherhood No. 3 player-coach
Dan Butler played in the league for
two seasons before forming his own
team in 2017.
Former Pisgah-Zeiger player Ryan
Markowitz joined him last year.
Markowitz was on the team in 2016
when it won the first of its three
straight league championships.
“They’re a tall, physical team and
we’re also tall, but not as physical,”
Sherline said.
“I think they (Pisgah-Zeiger) had
a little better chemistry than we did
because they’ve had a lot of the same
guys on their team for several years.
We had four new guys this season and
four guys from last year,” Butler said.
“It was a good season for us. We
jelled, the new guys helped us, and we
did better than last year when we lost
in the playoff semifinals.”
Sherline’s teammates this season
were Mike Feld, Adam Greenberg,
Scott Kapeller, Janard Long, Bryant
Gaston, Jay James, Chris Canada, Dan
Serlin and Jared Stoddard.
Butler’s roster included newcomers
Mike Rapin, Josh Fox, Brandon Nunn
Pisgah-Zeiger celebrates another B’nai B’rith
basketball league championship.
and Ron Peterson, along with return-
ees Markowitz, Blake Johnson and
Chris Walker.
The playoff semifinals and finals
were both played March 25.
Pisgah-Zeiger beat Brotherhood No.
1 75-53 in the semifinals led by three
players who scored in double figures:
Long (23 points), Canada (12) and
Kapeller (12). Brotherhood No. 3 beat
Brotherhood No. 2 in the other semifi-
nal game.
Greenberg scored 18 points and
Gaston had 17 in the final game.
Pisgah-Zeiger’s other regular-
season loss was a Jan. 28 defeat to
Brotherhood No. 2 when Pisgah-
Zeiger had only five players available.
“We normally played about seven
guys in a game,” said Sherline, who
has played in the league since it was
founded in 1976.
FIRST COLLEGIATE HR
Jordan Anstandig earned nine varsity
letters — three each in football, snow-
boarding and baseball — at Walled
Lake Northern High School before he
graduated in 2015.
Now he has another impressive cre-
dential for his athletic resume. He has
a collegiate home run.
Anstandig blasted a solo homer
about 375 feet over the fence in right-
centerfield Friday to send the host
Alma College baseball team on its way
to a 5-2 win over Albion College in the
first game of a doubleheader.
This is Anstandig’s first year at Alma
after transferring from Saginaw Valley
State University.
Anstandig is a 5-foot-7, 160-pound
junior outfielder. Through 16 games
this season, he was hitting .245 with
seven RBIs, 12 runs scored and three
stolen bases. •
Send news to stevestein502004@yahoo.com.