ocjcc818

SoCalHoops Tournament News

Orange County JCC Gets Three Wins
In Quest For Gold Medal--(August 18, 1998)

Like many basketball tournaments, the early games in pool play sometimes tend to be mismatches; the JCC Maccabi Games in Detroit is certainly not an exception, and the Orange County team has been cruising, receiving their only real challenge in the game this morning against Atlantic City, in a game which OC eventually won 60-19. The win was made a bit easier with an unfortunate injury to Atlantic City's star point guard's ACL. We don't know his name, but he was wearing No. 23 and was jacking up three's from all over the court. We want to wish him a speedy recovery and send him our good wishes because it's always so unfortunate when a fine young player suffers such a potentially dangerous injury.

Orange County has been winning its games by an average margin of victory of more than 40 points in the first three games. Not surprisingly all of the OC players have stepped up and really played impressively: Harrison Schaen (6'-7" 8th grade C), David Gale (5'-10" Fr. G), Craig Weinstein (5'-10" Fr. G) and Will Sheslow (6'-0" Fr. G) have all played very well, scoring, playing great defense and exhibiting tremendous athletic ability; Johnny Munz (5'-5" Fr. PG/SG), Matt Susson (5'-7" Fr. PG), Charlie Kranzdorf (6'-0" Fr. F) Aaron Stein (5'-11" Fr. SG) and Brian Trump (5'-11" Fr. F) have also played very well defensively.

Yesterday, at 8:30 a.m. OC played Baltimore, winning 59-25. In OC's second game, they won 74-28 against Samuel Field Y. And today in a 10:15 a.m. game, OC won 60-19 over Atlantic City.

Harrison Schaen played two great games yesterday, exhibiting great control, athleticism and maturity for someone who is as young as he is, and then was outstanding today in the Atlantic City game. In the first game against Baltimore, Schaen had 19 points, including two thunderous dunks, 7 blocked shots, 9 rebounds and six steals. In the second game against Field, Schaen had 17 points, another two dunks, 8 blocked shots, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 10 rebounds.

Craig Weinstein (left), Will Sheslow (center, videotaping)
and David Gale (right) relax between games yesterday

In the second game against Field, OC's outstanding players were Aaron Stein (5''-11" Fr. SG) from Montclair who had 16 points, including 4 three pointers, 3 in the first quarter, Johnny Munz (5'-5" Fr. SG) had 10 points, 2 rebounds and 4 assists, and Matt Susson (5'-7" Fr. PG) had 5 points 4 steals, 2 rebounds and 5 assists. Stein played great defense, forcing several turnovers as well.

David Gale (5'-10" Fr. G) had 5 points in the first game against Baltimore, got 6 assists, 2 steals and forced several turnovers, blocked 2 shots, and had 7 rebounds in the first two games. Charlie Kranzdorf (6'-0" Fr. F) didn't score a lot (4 points in the first game, none in the second) but he played great defensively, with 4 rebounds in the first game, 3 in the second and one assist. Brian Trump (5'-11" Fr.G/ F) who doubled at the post with Charlie, had four rebounds in the first game, 2 in the second, one assist in the second, 4 points against Baltimore and 7 against Samuel Field Y.

Will Sheslow was another high scorer in the first two games, hitting for 14 in the second game, and 10 in the second. Sheslow also managed to get 4 assists, 1 rebound and 1 steal in the first game agaisnt Baltimore, and one assist and one rebound against Field. Craig Weinstein had 5 assists, three rebounds and 4 steals against Baltimore and six assists, four rebounds and 1 steal against Field.

At the end of the first quarter against Field, the score was 23-2 OC. In the second quarter, OC took off its full court press, and dropped back into a 2-3 zone in order to avoid humiliating their opponents, and in the second half, didn't strongly contest opposing shots, but still managed to keep the offense alive.

In the game with Atlantic City today, OC had a little trouble getting started early on, and at the end of the first quarter the score was only 11-7, OC ahead as Schaen, Gale and Sheslow all had trouble with their shots. Weinstein did not play in the first quarter, and Atlantic City, which was just not as physically strong or quick was able to apply some early pressure, forcing several turnovers and disrupting OC's rhythm.

Harrison Schaen, Will Sheslow (5), David Gale 4, Aaron
Stein 14 get ready for jump with Atlantic City

In the second quarter, however, things began to rock and roll again, and the OC guys scored another 16 points while holding the Atlantic City to only 9 points in the second quarter.

The second half was a disaster for Atlantic City, not by design, but because they just stopped executing completely and virtually gave up. AC went completely scoreless from the field in the second half, and had it not been for a free-throw in the third quarter, and two more in the fourth, they would have gone completely scoreless in the half. In the third quarter, the wheels just came off for AC as Orange County held the Atlantic City guys to only a single point while scoring 20, and at the end of the quarter the score was 47-17. In the fourth quarter, OC played mostly a perimeter game, passing at least five times before taking a shot.

David Gale played great defense, getting 4 steals, 5 assists, 3 rebounds and 2 points. Craig Weinstein scored 12 points, 3 steals, 2 assists and 4 rebounds. Will Sheslow scored 18, had 5 assists 3 steals and 4 rebounds, and Schaen had 15 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals. Aaron Stein had 2 points, 2 rebounds and 2 steals, while Johnny Munz didn't score from the field, but did make one of two technical free throws assessed when one of the AC players lost his cool, and Munz also played great defense and also got an assist. Matt Susson didn't score, but did what he does best, distribute the ball to others, and he got three assists, three rebounds and three steals. Charlie Kranzdorf had 6 points, had one rebound and 2 steals. Brian Trump had 4 points, three steals one rebound and one assist. Weinstein had another solid game even though he didn't play for the entire first quarter or most of the third, getting 12 points, 4 rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Tomorrow OC faces Bergen County, a team with a couple of tall players and some speed and this could be their toughest test in pool play before the single elimination tournament gets going on Thursday in the Medal Rounds.