FORT WORTH, Texas -- The Orthodox Jewish high school basketball team from Houston took advantage of its eleventh-hour reprieve to compete in the state tournament by winning its semifinal Friday afternoon.
Robert M. Beren Academy defeated Dallas Covenant, 58-46, in a Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools Class 2A state semifinal at Nolan Catholic High School.
"It's been stressful the last few days," said 6-5 junior Zach Yoshor, who had 24 points and 11 rebounds, "but we're happy the way it turned out today."
Beren (24-5) advances to Saturday's 8 p.m. state title game at Nolan against the winner of Friday night's second semifinal matching Abilene Christian and Sugar Land Logos Prep.
"I didn't tell our players until after the game," said Beren coach Chris Cole, "but I felt tremendous pressure today. That pressure has been lifted."
Beren's participation in the tourney looked doubtful because both the semifinal and final were scheduled to fall within the Jewish Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. TAPPS denied Berren's appeals to change game times on Monday and Wednesday.
On Thursday, TAPPS relented when it learned a group of parents from Beren were taking the matter to court.
All of that set the scene for television cameras, a dozen reporters and a noisy crowd of about 700 for Friday's contest.
Edd Burleson, director of TAPPS, was on hand to congratulate Beren afterward.
"We're used to playing in front of 25 people and I can talk to my players on the court," Cole said. "Today I was yelling and they couldn't hear me."
Through a week of uncertainty, Beren continued to practice, hoping that its season wasn't over.
"I tried to block everything out all week and concentrate on playing basketball," said Beren senior point guard Isaac Mirwis. "I felt like we were nervous early, but then we settled down and played our game.
"The game went by so quickly," Mirwis added. "Zach thought we played the entire game in 45 minutes. I looked at the clock and it took an hour and 45 minutes."
Mirwis said he rarely is aware of the crowd, but when he and his teammates left the floor for a timeout with a 16-point lead and 1:42 on the clock in the fourth quarter, the standing ovation from the Stars fans was impossible to ignore.
"That kind of support is the reason we're still playing," he said.
For Valerie Mirwis, Isaac's mother, the real moment of happiness was when the team stepped on the floor for warm-ups.
"After they hit the floor, I was done," she said. "I'm not a person that says winning isn't important, either. But getting here was our goal and I felt like no matter what happens, we made it to this point."
Covenant (23-10) never led after the first quarter and had no luck stopping Yoshor, who scored from inside and beyond the 3-point line in a 19-point first half.
Senior Isaac Buchine's 3-point halftime buzzer-beater put the Stars up by 12 at the break, 34-22.
Down by as much as 18 points in the second half, Covenant managed to close to within 10 with four minutes to go.
"I thought our guys played great defense in those final four minutes because any foul would have sent them to the free throw line," Cole said.
"This feels so good, but we're not satisfied to win this game," Mirwis said. "We've got one to go."
Randy Jennings covers high schools for ESPNDallas.com.
