Valley Torah Get Its Star With Basketball Championship

It was looking grim for a while, but Valley Torah High came from nine points down in the fourth quarter in a 58-51 win over Bishop Diego in Santa Ana on Saturday in the Southern Section Div. VI-AA basketball championship at Mater Dei High – the first time a California Jewish school has ever won a basketball championship.

“It’s great to make history,” said Aaron Liberman, a 6-foot-9 center who scored 15 points with 12 rebounds and seven blocks. “We were down, but we pulled through and stepped it up to win. I can’t even believe it. Maybe when I wake up tomorrow, it will soak in.”

The state playoffs loom, but for now Liberman and his teammates are enjoying the moment.

“It think this will help the reputations of all Jewish schools now that we broke the barrier,” Liberman said. “Others will learn they can do it as well. It’s a very good feeling.”

Harvard-Westlake also won its championship game after defeating Inglewood 47-45 in the Southern Section Division III-A championship.

For Valley Torah, It took a furious fourth-quarter to make it happen.

“I feel 100 years old,” Valley Torah coach Robert Icart said. “We were down, and the kids just weren’t playing well. I think they were scared to make a mistake. I’m just really happy for the kids. They stuck together and played hard and kept chipping away. It’s just really great.”

Icart, coming in with no varsity head-coaching experience, took over the program this season, and he’s had a major impact, along with Liberman’s increasing development into the no-brainer section MVP.

“I put pressure on the kids to win. At the beginning of the season, I told them we were going to go after this,” Icart said.

Yosef Grundman added 17 points, and Nathaniel Liberman chipped in 15.

The state tournament presents a new set of challenges, as pairings are scheduled to be released Sunday with the first round Tuesday.

“It’s going to be tough. We’ll take it one game at a time,” Icart said.