The AAU Basketball Season continued this past weekend with the annual Spring Hardwood Classic Tournament hosted by the Westchester Elite. Sixteen teams representing many regions of New York State competed in the 14U (8th grade) Division with games played on the two courts at New Rochelle High School. The locally based Long Island Lightning Rothman squad went undefeated (5-0) to claim the Championship Title. This was the team's second title in four tournaments played so far this spring season. Their other title came in the Brewster Tip-Off Challenge held the last week of March.

The team is in its third full season of competing together. It is composed of players from all over Long Island, but has a strong local contingent with Roslyn residents Michael Lefcort, Ben Rothman and Andrew Wolfe as core members of the squad. The Roslyn players have been teammates on Island Garden Superleague and Long Island Lightning AAU teams since the 3rd grade. The team is coached by David Rothman (Roslyn) and Paul Valenti (Port Washington).

With five skilled players at or over 6' tall, and tremendous speed and toughness on the outside, the team's impressive AAU totals include six first place titles and five second place finishes in 19 tournaments played since 2006.

The 14U division had four pools each consisting of four teams. In early round play on Saturday, LIL quickly disposed of the Westchester Warriors and the Yonkers Minutemen. They won their bracket on Sunday morning with a convincing 22-point thumping of their first ever game against the very tough New York Pride. After taking a 7-0 lead in the first 3 possessions, in short order they systematically increased their lead to 20+ points and the game was never in doubt. LIL was able to rest all their big men for the final 12 minutes of the second half. This would prove to be a significant advantage given the grueling back to back semis and finals they would need to play just two hours later.

In the semi-finals, LIL defeated a tough Orange County Crusader squad 57-43. The game was marked by Lightning's dominance on the glass, which set up many scores off their secondary break.

In the finals, LIL faced the Westchester Hawks-Lynch Elite. This was easily the fiercest game of the tournament. Each time LIL pulled ahead by a comfortable margin, the Hawks clawed their way back. Although they never surrendered the lead, LIL was severely tested. It was a very physical game, but towards the middle of the second half, the bigger and more experienced LIL team began to wear down the Hawks. With a 7 point lead at the 4 minute mark, LIL went into their spread offense to slow the tempo and use up some clock. The Hawks were forced out of the comfort of their very effective 2-3 zone defense. With the court finally now opened up, LIL was able to exploit the Hawks using an assortment of screens and backdoor cuts leading to easy scores and coasted to a comfortable 55-50 victory.

Next up for the Lightning are the Regionals to be held in two weeks at Island Garden in West Hempstead. Expected to be one of the top seeds, Lightning Rothman will face its toughest competition of the season. Teams reaching the semi-final round of the Regionals qualify for AAU Nationals, which are being held this year in Orlando, FL the first week in August.