District 8 ruled this year in the CHSAA 1A state playoffs, but it was Denver Jewish Day that came out on top to win its first ever state championship.
The Tigers beat their district rival Belleview Christian 55-42 Saturday night, their eighth straight win to wrap up a 22-3 season. Ilan Schinagel led Denver Jewish Day with 25 points, including 12 in the 4th quarter, and Gavin Foonberg added 14.
“I have been dreaming of this moment since I stepped on the court as a (junior varsity) player,” Schinagel told CHSAANow.com. “It’s just unreal. We came together as one and brought it home.”
The win capped an exciting playoff weekend in Jewish Hoops America, with Shalhevet on Friday becoming the first Jewish girls team to ever win a California state championship. The only other boys team to ever win a state basketball title was the Yavneh Dallas Bulldogs when they took home the TAPPS 3A title in 2020.
Before the Colorado title game the teams split a pair of games this season. Belleview Christian won in the final game of the regular season and the Tigers returned the favor in the district championship game. Despite that outcome, the Bruins were given the top seed in the 1A playoffs and Denver Jewish Day settled for #2.
The Tigers won their first three playoff games with ease but trailed by 15 late in the 2nd quarter of their state semifinal Friday against McClave before a 20-4 third quarter gave them the lead they never gave up.
On Saturday night, the Tigers took a 10-6 lead after one quarter and extended it to double figures until just before halftime when they fouled Belleview on a 3-pointer. The two free throws made cut the Tigers’ lead to 24-15 at the break.
Belleview managed to get to within four points with just under two minutes left in the 3rd quarter. But a Lev Friedman 3-pointer just before the buzzer extended the Tigers’ lead to 10 and they stretched that to as many as 19 in the early minutes of the 4th to put the game away.
“We just won the state championship and so it doesn’t get better than that,” Coach Michael Foonberg, Gavin’s father, told CHSAANow.com “We had guys step up and I just love these guys. I knew this day was going to come.”