Long Island Lightning Takes Jamboree Classic

The spring AAU Basketball cavalcade rode through southern Westchester County this weekend with a stop at the Hooperstown Basketball Complex, which sponsored the Hooperstown Jamboree Tournament. Teams from all over New York, New Jersey and Connecticut converged to fight it out and in the 12U (6th grade) division, the locally based Long Island Lightning Rothman squad went undefeated to claim the Championship Title.

The team is in its third full season of competition. It is composed of players from all over Long Island, but has a strong local contingent with Roslyn residents Alex Klausner, Jake Rentzer and Kenny Rothman as core members of the squad. The Roslyn players have been teammates on Island Garden Superleague and/or Long Island Lightning AAU teams since the third grade. The team is coached by David Rothman of East Hills.

With three skilled players at or over 5' 8" tall (including a legitimate 12-year--old 6-footer), and tremendous speed and shooting prowess from the outside, the team's impressive AAU totals includes three first place titles and two second place finishes in 12 tournaments played since 2006. This weekend, they tore through the 12U bracket going 3-0 with 15+ point wins over the New York Pride, Lightning-Teich and a lively Fastbreak squad from Manhattan. In the finals, they faced the very tough Lightning-Cluess squad in a game played late Sunday afternoon. Paced by 5 three-pointers (one a first half buzzer beater) and a relentless attacking fastbreak keyed by their domination of the defensive glass, they took and maintained an early lead and cruised to a comfortable 47-41 victory.

Next up for the Lightening is the Westchester Elite Spring Hardwood Classic to be held in two weeks at Pace University in Briarcliff Manor. This tournament draws elite teams from Philadelphia to Boston and is known to be extremely competitive. The team will begin pool play on Saturday, May 3 and is hoping to bring another championship trophy back home to Long Island.