Opening their current adventures on the hardwood with a snappy 5-1 record in their non-league encounters, the boys Blazer hoopsters continue to add high class floor play despite a couple of bumps along the way. The overall mark stands at 8-3 as of Jan. 19 including 3-2 in their early B-IV division matchups.

An alarming event of adversity hit the squad late in the league opening affair at Mineola as 6-6 center Brandon Yankowitz went down with a sprained left ankle, his key pivot foot. He has since lingered on the sidelines in our last four games with an expected return shortly, forcing Coach Holleran to shift lineup units, giving Adam Larsen, Ronnie Ebrani and Jon Cooper more playing time up front but affording Donenfeld more of the scoring load.

Holleran states in earnest, "Our style of attack will emphasize more of an up-tempo pace with more people keeping rebounds alive in front court and thus dazzle opponents with quick ball movement. Yankowitz's inside scoring and intimidating board work will be subordinated to more outside shooting to maintain a steady flow of points. We have scored 60 or more in each of our eight wins but have stumbled below a 50-point average in our three losses."

Donenfeld has come through in recent games with a bushel of points, also raining a barrel of three-pointers, now totaling 26 in 11 games at a shooting clip of 38 percent. In all games he has amassed 190 points (an 18.2 pga) with a high of 28 against Clarke. Yankowitz had tallied 109 points in seven games at the time of his injury, averaging 10.3 rebounds with 52.8 percent floor shooting leading the team.

The accounts of our first five league games hereby follows:

Though the final score widened in the late going, the lieu of earlier closer finished in each wins, this was a tough battle in the early stages with the Blazers leading 13-12 and 28-23 at the first two breaks with Donenfeld (9) and Izzy Henriquez combining for 6, each hitting a long trey shot from outside. Yankowitz started to dominate with vengeance inside, hitting 10 points in the third as the lead extended to 45-32, then adding 10 more to the 3:41 mark of the fourth period with the lead up to 56-36 when he was knocked to the floor after making an incredible shot plus a foul. He was finally helped off the floor laying still for several minutes, finished for the game. He closed with 24 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots while making six straight free throws. Pint-sized Rocky Berokhim had to shoot Brandon's free throw, then added four more, joining Jon Cooper and Sohrab Soumekh from the charity stripe as part of 13-15 from the line in the final minutes and 15-19 overall. Donenfeld (13) and Henriquez (9) were the next highest of the local scorers while Dave Terezo and 6-4, 280 lb. Matt Damon (10) led the Mustangs, scoring half of their points together.

Against the Golden Eagles from Bethpage, the locals started quickly as Donenfeld connected twice for treys from his favorite floor spots in the corner and straightaway as North raced to an 18-9 lead after one quarter but fought off the Eagles' charge to within 24-20, finally settling for a 32-27 halftime lead. Donenfeld shot 6-10 with four three-pointers and 16 points, lighting it up at will when it counted.

In the second half Justin Glaser came alive, putting forth extra effort in his first key game of the season, scoring 16 of his final 20 point output, dominating inside with eight offensive rebounds of 13 overall. North added to their lead, extending to 48-37 after three, then closing at 7-2 in the final 2:20 for the 16-point victory. Donenfeld finished with a high of 22 points, shooting 8-16 overall, thus combining with Glaser for 42 of the 66 point Blazer output. Dave Barth (17), a 6-34 center, and A.J. Solomita (13) paced the Bethpage scoring.

This was the first experience for our squad to fold in the stretch after building a substantial early lead. The Blazers opened with a trademark fast break, run-and-gun attack, rushing to a 20-6 first period, hitting 9 of 19 from in close as Donenfeld, Glaser and Berokhim finished off full court sortees with layups. Meanwhile Ronnie Ebrani and Glaser combined for 15 first half rebounds though the host Red Devils slowed down the Blazer attack to a near crawl, drawing to 30-24 at midbreak, paced by a trio of three-pointers from Jesse Kinneary and three short baskets by A.J. Garavuso, both Plainedge football mainstays.

The Devils continued to slow down the scoring pace, playing like a team content to keep the score within a 40-50 point level, exerting their renowned physical prowess down close. Inching to a mere 38-36 deficit after three, they gained momentary leads leading up to the exciting finish. North regained the lead at 47-46 within the final minute but turned the ball over three times before Plainedge's Joe Mastrangelo hit two free throws to give the Devils the final one-point lead with :26 left. A stolen pass in :18 later spelled doom for our boys in their first close game. Donenfeld (17), Glaser (13) and Berokhim (10) had all but seven Blazer points. The Blazers hit just 20-57 from the floor (35.1 percent) but still held a narrow rebounding edge 37-33 built up early in the game. Kinneary and Garavuso combined for 29 of 48 Plainedge points.

This was a game the Blazers could have won but for an unparalleled chain of events in the final minute resulting in five technical fouls on one sequence with Coaches Holleran and Leighton ejected with two each and Donenfeld assessed another. Against a team less talented than Plainedge, the Blazers started out well against the Warriors, leading by 16-13 at the first break but gradually became unraveled by Wantagh's edge off the boards and overall below average shooting. The home team edged ahead by two late in the second period, leading by 27-23 at halftime. It was Mike McCaffery in the backcourt who dominated for Wantagh, netting 15 first-half points on the way to 20 overall while the locals had trouble connecting from outside with Donenfeld hitting for just seven first half tallies.

Once again scoring lapses kept the score down as the home team opened to 33-25 before Ebrani and Donenfeld closed the gap to 41-35 with foul shots. The deficit was cut to 41-39 until Sam Grubard's trey opened the gap to five. It came down to 46-43 with 1:03 left when Coach Holleran protested McCaffery going to the line for two shots, claiming that Joe Fedele, a lesser player, was fouled. After a persistent tirade costing two technicals for Holleran plus two more for Leighton warranting ejection for both, a total of 12 foul shots were taken by Wantagh including McCaffery's shots with no time off the clock. With the score now 54-43 and the Warriors retaining possession, they added two more free throws for the 56-43 and the Warriors retaining possession, they added two more free throws for the 56-43 final. Grubard shot all the technicals, hitting 7-12 in this sequence, finishing with 15 points. Donenfeld led North with 13 points with no three-pointers among 17 baskets for the first time this season.

Having defeated Clarke in their season opening tournament, this was a league game which turned out to be a breather as the game progressed. Leading by only 9-5 at the quarter, Donenfeld found the mark next period with 13 points for a 29-14 midbreak lead, then added 13 more as the locals opened up to 47-27 after three. The bench gained much floor time to close it out with Cooper, Levian, Soumekh and Berokhim tallying all but two Blazer fourth period points.

Donenfeld scored a career high 28 points, none in the first period, with four treys among 11 baskets in 20 attempts. Nine others scored, none in double figures. Husky Dom Suarez led the Rams with 10 points among six others scoring.