The NYHS boys’ varsity basketball team finished 5th in the SeaTac League with a 14-7 record.
On February 17th, the team lost its last game against Providence Classical with a score of 59-50.
“It was great. We got to the district round for the second straight year. We’re proud of that,” said head coach Steve Bunin. “We’re also frustrated because we thought we would get further.”
This was the second year with both a JV team and a varsity team, as an increased number of boys are interested in basketball. The JV team consists of mostly freshmen and sophomores who are still building as a team. The varsity team is under the leadership of Bunin, the head coach, and Aaron Hanan, the assistant coach, who also coaches the JV team.
A highlight of the season for the varsity co-captain Evan Kaufthal was the win to get into tri-districts over Concordia.
“Earlier in the season, I had put up a very solid game against them [Concordia], and I expected to continue that dominance in this matchup,” Kaufthal said. “That was not the case. I played terribly and negatively impacted the team. But despite this, among efforts from each of my teammates, we pulled out a tough win.”
The JV team ended their season in 9th place with 2 wins and 6 losses. One of the highlights of this season for Hanan was when Levi Schiffmann scored a buzzer-beater against Grace Academy.
JV player Yair Rothstein agreed. “When Levi scored that shot, everyone ran onto the courts and it was a really good moment for the team,” Rothstein said.
“The team has been doing well pressing the other team and getting a lot of steals,” said Dori Tilson, co-captain of JV. “But we need to work on making layups and getting rebounds.”
According to Bunin, both of the teams have improved their performance throughout the season but there is still some improvement that needs to be made.
“We have to be smarter, know what to do with the ball, where it goes, where we need to be. We have to learn our offense better,” Bunin said. “And we have to communicate better. That’s a big part of basketball. Teams that talk win and teams that are quiet lose, and we need to talk more.”
Both of the basketball teams have concluded their seasons for this year. However, they will be playing at Seattle Hebrew Academy in March for the Ari Grashin Memorial basketball tournament.
