Shalhevet’s 2012 – 2013 Boys Varsity Basketball team made it farther in the CIF playoffs then any other sports team in school history, reaching the Southern Section Division 5A championship game. The road to that game was not a short journey.
Strengthened physically and mentally by an intensive, year-long game and practice schedule, the Firehawks stormed through the regular season with a win-loss record of 20 and 1. This included victories over cross-town rival YULA Jan. 2, as well as Milken on Feb. 9 – both larger schools who compete in different divisions.
“I knew this would be a special season,” said team co-captain Ari Wachtenheim, reflecting on the year’s overall record. “We dedicated some long nights for this season and it paid off.”
After winning their first five contests, the Firehawks suffered a single early-season loss to the Division 4 Renaissance Academy Wildcats of La Canada, then finished the regular season on a dynamic 15-game winning streak. Players gave much of the credit to their second-year coach, Collin Jamerson.
“Collin did a really good job this year, just getting us prepared and on the same page,” said co-captain Jojo Fallas. “It was really fulfilling, after all the hard work you put in — I just felt like this year’s team was really special, because we focused on what we wanted to accomplish, and everything we did was about accomplishing that goal.”
When the division playoffs began, the Firehawks also faced the largest expectations in school history – and their toughest challenge.
Shalhevet competes in the CIF Southern Section, a massive association of over 570 schools that includes all public and private schools in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and four other counties, except for the Los Angeles Unified School District. If it were a state itself, the Southern Section would be 10th largest in the U.S.
Within Southern Section, Shalhevet competes in Division 5A, which has 45 member schools, with an average of 200 students in grades 9 – 12. Shalhevet’s enrollment this year is 162.
The Firehawks entered the playoffs as the No. 2 overall seed, and as coach Collin Jamerson said, “with a target on our backs.” Their first-round game was against the Bloomington Christian Ravens. Although the Ravens came out with some intensity and kept the game close early, in the end Shalhevet’s talent proved too much for them to handle, and Shalhevet pulled away in the second half, winning 61 – 44.
Shalhevet’s next game came against AGBU (Armenian General Benevolent Union) Pasadena. Once again, Shalhevet’s speed and shooting ability ran the other team out of the gym, with Shalhevet blowing out AGBU by 40 points.
The team’s first real test in the playoffs came against the Valley Torah Wolfpack in the third round Feb. 20, the week before Purim. Although they had already defeated Valley Torah earlier in the season, this game went down to the wire.
Perhaps overconfident from their earlier victory, Shalhevet came out flat on both sides of the ball, while the Wolfpack jumped out to an early lead highlighted by senior Nathaniel Liberman’s dunk. But led by Jojo, the Firehawks fought back and were able to go up by two points at the end of the first quarter.
From then on, this game was a nail-biter. For the next three quarters, neither team was able to get a big lead. Although neither team played their best games, whenever Shalhevet needed a big shot, Jojo knocked it down, and Nathaniel Liberman did the same for Valley Torah.
With 17 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, this game turned into a classic. Down by 1, Shalhevet did what it has all year — handed the ball to Jojo — and he delivered, knocking down a huge 3-pointer to put Shalhevet up by two.
Then, Valley Torah needed to score to at least force overtime. Instead, amid cheers of Mi shenichnas Adar from the Shalhevet fans, the Firehawk defense forced a turnover. At this point, everyone in the gym was sure Shalhevet had won the game. But the drama was just getting started.
Firehawk sophomore Adam Kaufler, inbounding the ball under his own basket, made what may have been the mistake of the season had Shalhevet lost this game. Attempting to throw a pass to a cutting Simcha Halpert, he threw it late, and Liberman snagged the ball.
Amid gasps from the crowd, Liberman then raced to the corner to heave up a 3-pointer that would win the game. It air-balled, but a Valley Torah player got the rebound. The first attempted put-back by VT fell out, but as time expired, a last second layup rolled in, forcing overtime.
As the Shalhevet crowd sat stunned, the Valley Torah fans went into a frenzy. Any sports fan would expect the Valley Torah team with all of the momentum to have come out and dominated in overtime.
Instead, Shalhevet came out, and thanks to stingy defense and good shooting, shut out the Wolfpack in overtime, wining the game by a score of 70 – 63 and booking their trip to the CIF Section Semifinals against San Gabriel Prep.
It was Purim night when the Firehawks took on the San Gabriel Eagles in a CIF Semifinal Game on Feb. 23. After a quick Megila reading by sophomore player Mati Hurwitz, the atmosphere was absolutely electric, with Shalhevet piling kids into a bus to go to the game.
Although the Eagles were mostly taller than the Firehawks, Shalhevet played a great game. Led again by Jojo Fallas, with 32 points. Shalhevet never trailed en route to a 70 – 58 victory. A standout player for San Gabriel was junior forward Josh Ajayi, who at one point in the game laid a tomahawk dunk on freshman Jacob Dauer.
Senior guard Ari Wachtenheim also played very well, controlling the offense throughout the game for the Shalhevet offense, and sophomore Simcha Halpert shot the lights out to set up a meeting in the CIF Section Championship against the No. 1-seeded Rolling Hills Prep Huskies – the only playoff game Shalhevet lost. (See story, P. 2.)
“It’s going to be tough next year, coming from doing so well this year while next year we’re losing so many great seniors,” said sophomore sharpshooter Simcha Halpert.
But sophomore guard Zev Marcus said not to count the Firehawks out.
“With Collin as our coach, we can win any tournament,” Zev said.
