ocgold

Pictured left to right are the 1998 Gold Medal winning Maccabi Games Champions from Orange County: Harrison Schaen (33),
Brian Trump (31), Craig Weinstein (1), Will Sheslow (rear) Johnny Munz (9), Charlie Kranzdorf (rear), Matt Susson (15),
David Gale (4), Aaron Stein (42)

Actually the Championship Gold Medal game took place on Friday August 20, but due to our extended vacation schedule this is the first opportunity we've had to write about it. As you may know from the articles posted last Thursday, Team OC played in one of two semi-final games on Thursday morning, which they won, in order to earn the right to play in the finals.

In OC's Semifinal game, they met up with San Francisco at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, and the game was not much to write home about. . . so we didn't, at least not until now. Actually, San Francisco is a very well-coached team with some fine athletes who simply had the misfortune of being in OC's path to the Gold Medal game.

The San Francisco Maccabi team, like the Orange County team, is really a group of players from all over the region. Just as Orange County features players from Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, so too does San Francisco feature players from all over the Bay Area. The SF team was made up of more than a few good players, several of whom will go on to play high school varsity, but on Thursday morning, they just never really got it going, and could not shake OC's tremendous pressure defense, and they just didn't adjust when OC went to a man-to-man in the second quarter.

Jason Ostroff (6'-3" Fr. F/C) from Urban
Matt Strauss (5'-8" Fr. G) from St. Mary's Berkeley
Andrew Goldstein (5'-9" 8th grade G) prep school
Misha Mintz-Roth (5'-10" Fr. G) from Lick-Wilmerding
Adam Stern (5'-9" Fr. G) from Berkeley High
Simon Ogus (5'-11" Fr. G) from Palo Alto
Max Spiegelman (5'-5" 8th grade G) from Woodside
Noan Ben-Oni (5'-6" Fr. G)
Elon Ben-Oni (5'-6" Fr. G)

The team was coached by Bill Black, who has been involved in Maccabi basketball for more than 10 years and who also acts as a high school basketball referee in the Bay Area. The other coach is Peter Pollet, an assistant basketball coach at Riordan High in San Francisco.

Physically, Ostroff matched up fairly well with OC's Harrison Schaen, and even though Schaen had about 4 inches on Ostroff, the latter had about 75 lbs on Schaen, and he also had some interesting post moves for a freshman. But in order to get the ball to the big man down low, San Francisco had to first get the ball upcourt, and that was a difficult task, as OC went to a relentless 3-1-1 press throughout the first half of the game, and by the half the game was virtually out of reach. Even though OC went to a standard 2-3 zone defense throughout the second half, and did not strongly contest some shots in the second half, the wind had literally been taken out of SF's sails, and OC eventually won by the lopsided score of 61-28.

In the other semifinal bracket on Thursday, Bergen County and Atlantic City squared off and Bergen County emerged with the win, setting up the final of Orange County v. Bergen County (NJ) for the gold medal game at 1:30 p.m. at West Hills.

Both Bergen and OC had met before in pool play, and OC had fairly completely dominated the game, and this one was no different. OC started Craig Weinstein, Harrison Schaen, David Gale, Brian Trump and Will Sheslow, bringing Charlie Kranzdorf, Aaron Stein, Matt Susson and Johnny Munz in off the bench, and OC didn't waste any time going to its "100" press, the 3-1-1 full court trap. Bergen's shooters were also uncharacteristically cold, missing shot after shot in the first quarter, and turning the ball over repeatedly. In the first quarter, OC broke out to a 12-0 lead, and while Bergen managed to close the gap to 15-4 at the end of the quarter, they never got any closer than 14 points the rest of the game. In the first quarter, Weinstein had 9 points, including two 3-pointers, a two pointer, a free-throw, two steals and one assist, while Gale had one 3-pointer, a 2-pointer, one assist, two rebounds, one steal and two blocks, including a huge block from the back on Bergen's big man (still don't know his name, but he was wearing No. 12) early in the quarter which set the tone for the game. Schaen didn't score in the period, but had two rebounds, one steal and two blocked shots. Sheslow had 2 points, and two rebounds in the first quarter, while Brian Trump had two boards in the 1st. Charlie Kranzdorf had a steal and one rebound.

The second quarter was a little better for Bergen, as their shots started to drop. But OC also managed to score another 13 points, and by the end of the second quarter, the score was 28-14. In the second quarter, Harrison Schaen managed 4 points and 2 rebounds, while Will Sheslow had 5 points, including one from the line. David Gale had three more steals in the quarter and two assists, while Craig Weinstein had 2 assists and one rebound. Matt Susson came in off the bench to score a field goal and grab a steal, while Johnny Munz had one rebound but didn't score during the second quarter.

Delphic League's Montclair will feature Will ("Wilbert Arenas") Sheslow (5), Charlie Kranzdorf (14),
Brian Trump (31) and Aaron Stein (12)

David Gale (4) of Liberty League's Buckley, and Craig Weinstein (1) of Mission League's
Harvard-Westlake relax after winning the Gold Medal

After the half, the OC fans, which included the OC boys' and girls' soccer teams and a few hundred others, sensed the impending victory, and began to stomp in the stands and shake the gym floor. OC came out fired up as Weinstein scored another 7 points in the third, Gale added two more steals and an assist, and Sheslow added 4 points, one assist and one rebound. Schaen also started to pick up his game in the third quarter and he had another two blocks and two points as well. Charlie Kranzdorf played very well defensively and also contributed offensively with a field goal in the third quarter, while Aaron Stein, who didn't score in the game, did manage a couple of assists. OC kept up some of the defensive intensity, switching to a man to man, and then back to a 2-1-2 zone, and finally to a 1-3-1 zone, adjustments that Bergen could never quite anticipate, and at the end of the third quarter, the score was 42-27 with Orange County fairly comfortably ahead.

In the fourth quarter, Johnny Munz went to block an inbounds pass and was inadvertently injured, sending him to the sidelines in a great deal of pain, which prompted one of the OC coaches to say the only thing that could be said when a team is up by 15 points with less than 8 minutes left to play: "Let's win this one for Johnny!" Of course the other thing which needed to be said was to have the entire team gather around Brian Trump to give him some touches for good luck, a ritual which is sure to become a tradition in Maccabi basketball, and it seemed to work, as Trump grabbed another three boards in the quarter. Will Sheslow hit for two more three-pointers, David Gale shot another three-pointer and added a two-pointer to go with one more assist and one more steal in the 4th quarter, while Charlie Kranzdorf added another field goal, and Harrison Schaen added 6 more points, including a thunderous dunk, at the end of the game to cap the win by a final score of 63-47.

All in all, this was a very successful run for the OC team and we want to congratulate all the teams competing in the Maccabi Games, as well as the coaches, the hundreds of volunteers and host families in Detroit and the surrounding areas who graciously hosted all of the athletes, and most especially, we want to congratulate the members of the Orange County JCC Maccabi Basketball team for their undefeated Gold Medal run.

Player	Points	Assists	Rebounds	Blocks	Steals
David Gale	10	5	2	2	7
Harrison Schaen	12	0	4	4	1
Will Sheslow	17	1	3	0	0
Charlie Kranzdorf	4	0	1	1	1
Johnny Munz	0	0	1	0	1
Brian Trump	2	1	6	0	0
Matt Susson	2	0	0	0	1
Aaron Stein	0	2	0	0	0
Craig Weinstein	16	1	3	2	4
Totals	63	10	20	9	15