Below a game recap of the Jewish Day School's (Rockville, Maryland) elimination from the PVAC playoffs last week. The star of JDS is 6'8" Cornell recruit, Eitan Chemerinski.JDS loses a heartbreaker
Washington Jewish Week
February 25, 2009
It just wasn't their night. The Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School boys' basketball players had a perfect season until meeting Washington International School in the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference championship game last Saturday at Trinity College in the District.
Washington International was no trouble for the Lions when first they met three weeks ago. JDS routed the Red Devils by 40. But everything turned out differently in the title game, a night when everything went wrong for the Lions from start to finish.
JDS let Washington International hang around, and then lost top scorer Eitan Chemerenski in overtime. The Red Devils pulled out a 52-46 victory in double overtime to win the title.
The Lions came into the game with a 23-0 record. They had routed just about everyone all season. Everything was in place -- but it all fell apart.
JDS coach Matt Feldman thinks that the chase for the perfect record and the championship may have worn on his team a bit.
"I think 22-0 got to them more than the championship," he said.
So much went wrong on this night. When the teams last met, the Lions shot about 65 percent from the field. They made three-pointers, short shots, free throws, everything.
But JDS just couldn't buy a basket in this one. The Lions missed 11 of 13 from the lane in the first half alone and didn't make any three-point shots in the second half or the two overtime periods.
To make matters worse, JDS missed nine free throws in the fourth quarter and the overtimes.
"We did not shoot well," Feldman said. "We got good shots offensively, but nothing went in."
Chemerinski led the way with 23 points. But he fouled out in the first minute of overtime. Jonah Weisel added 11 points, but no other player scored more than three points.
JDS has relied a lot of Chemerinski, the 6-foot-8 senior who's headed for Cornell next year, but the Lions counted on balance just as much. Teams often double- and triple-teamed him, but Chemerinski was good at finding the open teammate for a good shot.
Those shots didn't go on this night. Feldman said that JDS averaged 16 points in the first, second and third quarters of the 20-game regular season this year. But the Lions got eight, 10 and nine points in the first three quarters of this game.
"We are so consistent and for us to go eight, 10 and nine showed our nervousness," Feldman said.
The Lions started slowly on offense and never got going. The game was deadlocked at eight after the first quarter, and JDS held just an 18-16 halftime lead.
They normally take command in the third quarter, but Washington International jumped out to a 29-27 lead heading into the fourth quarter, gaining confidence all the time.
The game swung back and forth in the fourth quarter, with the Lions needing a last-second follow-up basket by Chemerinski to force overtime. But Chemerinski, battling foul trouble for much of the night, soon fouled out and had to sit and watch.
Still, the Lions gave it a run. They were tied at 45 after the first overtime and had a shot at winning it at the end.
But JDS faded in the second four-minute overtime. The Lions didn't get a basket, scored just one point, and Washington International pulled away.
The dream of a perfect season had ended.
"I told the boys before the first playoff game that [going] 3-0 is going to be much more difficult than winning 20 in a row," Feldman said, meaning winning three straight playoff games is never an easy task.
"But I'm so proud of them."
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