By Jacqueline Chase
Staff writer
@Mitzpeh

Yeshiva University overcame Johns Hopkins University 64-49 in the top tier championship at the National Hillel Basketball Tournament Sunday afternoon.

Johns Hopkins finished with a 32-31 lead after the first period, which junior economics and international studies major John Blustein of the Johns Hopkins team credited to teammate Mike Gardner, who Blustein said was hitting shots from “five feet behind the three point line.”

Yeshiva caught up in the second half, with the teams battling back and forth. After several 3-point shots from both teams, Yeshiva took the lead. With one minute and 30 seconds left Yeshiva held a 15 point lead that they kept until the final buzzer sounded.

“It was the best game we could have played,” Blustein said. “We have been practicing together, we hit our shots, played good defense, they just were not missing and they just outplayed us. But we left everything out on the floor, we really have nothing else to be ashamed of.”

The teams had the crowd cheering throughout the whole game with several steals from both sides.

“The Yeshiva team really took me by surprise,” said Caitlin Ohnmacht, a sophomore public health major at Johns Hopkins University. “I think the Hopkins team still played really hard but the shots didn’t fall for our team. It was a great game though. They played with a lot of energy on both teams.”

Both teams received trophies in a closing ceremony. Eitan Halpert, a freshman finance major on the Yeshiva team, won the Most Valuable Player award.

Halpert said he played on a good team and enjoyed the game.

“This game I was just able to go off and just have a good game,” Halpert said. “We fought hard to keep up.”