Seniors

The conclusion of the season marks the end of three East seniors' careers: Andrew Nahum ('10), Ben Gerstein ('10) and Seth Friedman ('10). I just wanted to write some brief comments about each of the Cougar seniors.

Andrew Nahum truly should be commended for his leadership, unselfishness, and team first attitude that he exhibited the entire season for East. I have a lot of respect for Nahum and his unconditional devotion and leadership for the team, and after talking to his teammates- I found out they feel the same. Nahum came into the season as a projected starter/sixth man. The way everything worked out this year, head coach Mr. John Valore rarely substituted in players off the bench. In fact, excluding injuries, the same five who started games for East normally played most of, if not, the entire game for East. Nahum did have some opportunities to play this year, and when he did he played well. But because of significant contributions from some newcomers to the varsity squad this year, he did not play nearly as much as was expected early on in the season. Despite the fact he may not have played as much as he, or others would have liked, he could be seen every game encouraging his teammates and not showing the least bit of animosity for his situation. It is evident that he was a big piece to the chemistry of this year's team, and he will definitely be missed next year.

Ben Gerstein has probably the most triumphant story out of any of the graduating seniors. In middle school at Beck, Gerstein was cut as a 7th grader. While many players probably would have hung up competitive basketball after this set back, Gerstein continued to work hard in preparation for the following year's basketball tryouts. As an 8th grader, Gerstein made the "B" team at Beck, while basically all of his peers who played freshman basketball at East in 2007 were selected for the "A", or "higher level" team. Once again, Gerstein continued to fight, and by the time he arrived at East for his freshman basketball season, Gerstein's hard work was finally paying off. As a freshman, Gerstein played JV basketball. He played varsity as a sophomore, junior and senior, and started varsity as a junior and senior. It was really enjoyable to see Gerstein have a very good senior campaign after all of the hard work he put in over the past several years and to see his last successful field goal in high school be as big as it was (the three pointer that put East within 3 points versus Shawnee late in the fourth quarter of East's playoff game loss).

Seth Friedman's senior season was truly one that will be remembered for years to come. He broke two records (most assists in a single game (20) and most assists in a single season), and was possibly the biggest reason why the team was so successful this year. A four year varsity player for the Cougars, it was truly amazing to see just how much Friedman grew as a player this past year. Seth started at point guard for East last year as a junior, and at times, Seth seemed to play a bit tentatively. This year, Friedman played with absolutely no signs of nerves or tentativeness. Every single game, Friedman played with a sense of calmness that all great point guards seem to possess. As a senior, he developed a sense of mental toughness that allowed him to not fret in key possessions of the game. In addition to increasing his assist per game average from last year, he also dramatically decreased his turnover per game average. Without the play of Seth Friedman this season, there is no way East could have done as well as they did. His presence on the court will undoubtedly be missed next year.

With this last post also ends my career as a major contributor to this blog. Even though I will not be here next to cover East's basketball games, Max Cohen will continue running the blog next year. Both Karina (our photographer), Max, and I would like to thank all of the followers of our blog. We truly hope that people enjoyed all of the coverage we brought you this season. Only bbout 9 more months until next basketball season starts. GO COUGARS!

Cougars end season with 62-53 playoff loss to Shawnee

Yesterday, the Cougars ended their season in a hard fought battle to Shawnee. With the loss, the Cougar's finish the 2009-2010 season with a 19-8 record.

The Cougars completely controlled the game early on. At the end of the first quarter, East led 12-8. But then, Shawnee really took control of the game in the second quarter, outscoring East by 9 points in the quarter. In the third quarter, Shawnee out scored East 16-9. Throughout the second half, Shawnee rarely missed a shot, and East was having trouble scoring, which allowed Shawnee to take a 12 point lead into the fourth quarter.

At one point in the second half, East fell back as far as 15 points. But then, many things happened that allowed East to make a comeback in the fourth quarter. The Cougars began pressing on defense, and they caused Shawnee to turn the ball over on numerous occasions. East then followed up Shawnee's turnovers with a scoring spree of their own . With about four minutes left, Marc Schlessel ('12) hit a three to reduce Shawnee's lead to 50-44. Then, on East's next possession, Ben Gerstein ('10) hit possibly the most clutch shot of his basketball career. With exactly 3:37 left in the game, Gerstein hit a three pointer from the top of the key, making the score 50-47. The Cougar faithful crowd in Shawnee's gymnasium absolutely erupted when Gerstein hit this shot, and the happiness among all of the East fans was truly a remarkable site.

But on Shawnee's ensuing possession, a Shawnee player was fouled in the act of shooting. The Shawnee player's shot was good, and he converted the free throw, making the score 52-47 with 3:15 left in the game.

On East's next possession, East turned the ball over, and Shawnee went on a fast break. Three Shawnee players were down the court, with only Seth Friedman ('10) protecting East's basket. Friedman was able to block a Shawnee player's shot and recover the ball. Friedman then threw a pass cross court to a wide open Chris Santo ('11) on the right side of the three point line. Santo's three point attempt was no good, however. Following Santo's missed shot, the wheels fell off for East for good. With 2:25 left in the game, Santo fouled out of the game and Shawnee hit foul shot after foul shot, pushing the game out of reach for the Cougars and ending their season with a second round playoff loss. For the second straight year, East lost in the second round of the playoffs.

Final Point breakdown for East in the game:

Seth Friedman : 3 points
Edou Zaken : 2 points
Marc Schlessel : 10 points
Chris Santo : 21 points
Jake Gurkin : 9 points
Jesse Gold : 2 points
Ben Gerstein : 6 points

Please check back tomorrow for some concluding words on East's graduating senior basketball class.

Final Game

Hey everyone. I, along with all the other Cougar faithful, am sad about tonight's season ending loss. I will post a concluding article sometime tomorrow, but just briefly, I wanted to thank the Cougars for not only a great season this year, but for the past 4 years. Twenty years from now, I will remember Cougar basketball as one of the most exciting times of my high school life, and I am sad that I will not be in high school next year to see Santo, Schlessel, Gurkin, and the many other rising returning players put on a show in '10-'11.

Check back tomorrow for the article that I promised.

Go East.

Cougars/Countrymen take over Southern Regional

Before I start my post about the Cougars 53-46 opening round playoff win against Southern Regional, I just wanted to let all of you know that you should be lucky there is a blog or Twitter update tonight after Mike, Nate and I were threatened to be kicked out of the game by Southern's Athletic Director as we did not want to sit with East's students so that we could focus on the Twitter update. Eventually after five minutes of the lady yelling at us, we took our seats ready to watch a Cougar victory.

This turned out to be one of those games in which an attendee of the game felt as though the Cougars had it in the bag the whole game. They dictated the tempo of play, had better shooting than Southern and also seemed to rebound better. Yet, as the final score indicates this game was very close.

In a first quarter in which East clearly played better than Southern, Marc Schlessel had 5 points and Chris Santo had 8 points. The quarter ended with a 15-11 Cougar lead.

The second quarter was very similar to the first. Santo scored 7 more points to give him a total of 15 at the half. Jake Gurkin also played well in the quarter and the game as he scored 4 points in the quarter on his way to 11 total on the game. He looked good inside as he and Chris Santo piled up the blocks although blocks are not an official stat kept by the team. The Cougars appeared to be in good position to advance in the playoffs as they led 28-21 at

the half. Santo had 15 points and 6 rebounds at the half, Schlessel had 5 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists and Gurkin had 6 points and 4 rebounds.

Before a Ben Gerstein three, Southern Regional went on a 5-0 run to start the quarter. Minutes later, Jake Gurkin hit a three and the assist was from Seth Friedman who on the pass broke Jeremy Kaminer's East single-season assists record. The Cougar lead was extended to 12 after another Gerstein 3 but was quickly brought down to 43-38 after a Southern 7-0 run. It looked as though the game would be close even though the Cougars seemed to have been closing out Southern just moments before.

After a Southern basket later in the fourth quarter, Friedman hit a 3 with the assist from Santo with 4:30 left in the game. This took some of the air out of a 10 person Uggs-clad Southern Regional crowd which seemed to sense that their team had a chance. Another three by Friedman followed by a Santo layup brought the Cougar lead up to 11 with 3 minutes left. Of course, Southern proceeded to go on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to 6 with 1:45 left. However, the Cougars eventually closed them out for the victory, 53-46.

The Cougars next game will be at number 2 seed Shawnee on Thursday night at 7. Shawnee defeated Cherry Hill West 39-33 tonight in the opening round of the playoffs.

Player of the Game:Santo. With his good work in scoring 19 points combined with his 12 rebounds, Santo led the team to victory particularly in the first half when he scored 15 of his points.

Stats

Santo-19 points 12 rebounds

Seth Friedman-10 points

Ben Gerstein-8 points

Jake Gurkin-11 points

Marc Schlessel-5 points