Macslive Reporting Services (New York, NY)

The penultimate Tier I qualifier on Thursday will feature the seventh-seeded Bnei Akiva Stars (Houston, TX) and the tenth-seeded Cooper Maccabees (Memphis, TN), with tip off scheduled for 5:30 PM.

The Stars will need big games from Zach Yoshor, their 6’6” center, and Isaac Mirwis, their two stars who have carried the scoring load for them this season.  Yoshor led the team in both points and rebounds at an impressive 20.6 and 10.0 per game. Mirwis, a senior, averaged 18.2 points and 8.6 assists per game, but his defensive prowess has also drawn headlines.  His 3.2 steals per game have made him an imposing obstacle for opponents.  Both Isaac Buchine and Drayton Ratcliff have also played key roles for the Stars on the defensive end, averaging 2.8 steals and 6.2 rebounds respectively.

The Cooper Maccabees and third-year Coach Richard Lewis will look to show why their team went an impressive 21-4 on the season. Junior point guard Eli Osdoba, the fifth-leading scorer in the country among Jewish day school players at over 22 points per game, will be called upon to lead his team. Osdoba has shown major improvements as the season progressed and leads the team in points, assists and steals. Bryan Itkowitz will be needed on the boards as the Maccabees try to stop the Stars’ big men from getting too many easy buckets down low. The Macs went on a tear earlier this year, including a record 17-game winning streak, the longest in school history. The Maccabees went on to win the Collierville Classic Tournament, ending a 10-year school drought.

The game will be broadcast live in high definition by MacsLive, available at www.macslive.com.  The winner will go to the Tier-I quarterfinals, with the loser moving to the Tier-II qualifying round on Friday.