By TAREK FATTAL
The Valley Torah boys basketball team is carving a deeper and deeper imprint into program history with each postseason win this month.
Call it March Madness.
The Wolfpack — seeded last (No. 16) in the CIF State Division IV SoCal Regional bracket — has emerged as a Cinderella story by knocking off one higher-seeded at a time en route to Tuesday night’s regional final at No. 2 Scripps Ranch in San Diego at 6 p.m.
Valley Torah stunned No. 1 Westchester (66-52) and beat No. 8 Chatsworth (69-59) in the first two rounds of the regional playoffs, and then took down No. 5 Millikan of Long Beach (72-59) in the semifinals Saturday night.
o player on the Valley Torah roster is taller than 6-foot-5, and the players wear yarmulkes during the game.
They’ve been underestimated every game, according to junior guard Johny Dan.
“Always,” Dan said after Saturday night’s win over Millikan. “People see us as the 16-seed, we’re short, we’re not big, we’re not strong, but we don’t care. We play with heart.”
Dan has been terrific this postseason. He’s scored 244 points in seven playoff games and is averaging 35 points per contest.
“Nothing fazes him,” Valley Torah coach Lior Schwartzberg said of Dan. “He plays hard all the time.”
The team is made up of juniors and sophomores (with one injured senior) that is used to playing on the road.
“We don’t have a home gym,” Schwartzberg said laughing. “It’s no big deal.”
Source: Daily News
