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Following a 2-8 season, Moshe Aaron Yeshiva High School's boys junior varsity basketball team practiced moving the ball on offense in a way that created open outside shots for sophomore guard Johnny Kluger.

At least for one game, mission accomplished.

Kluger poured in 19 points for the Jaguars, including three 3-pointers, in a season-opening 47-36 home victory Nov. 12 in South River over Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy of the Jewish Educational Center (JEC). After igniting MAYHS by taking several steals from end to end for layups early on, Kluger started the second half with a three from the left corner to give the Jaguars a commanding 27-12 lead.

"Johnny's perspective has changed this year," MAYHS coach Joel Felder said. "Our whole offense is geared on getting a lot of outside open shooting, and Johnny's a big part of that." Ari Lopaten added 13 points for MAYHS. The Jaguars opened the game with a 9-0 spurt, capped on Lopaten's jumper, by stifling the Thunder with man-to-man pressure defense. Every time the Thunder looked to make a run, Kluger shot back with his sweet stroke, draining a three from the right wing to put MAYHS up 20-10 in the second quarter, as well as a pretty pull-up trifecta in the third quarter for a 14-point cushion.

Kluger also smoothly ran the Jaguars' fast-break offense. On one fourth-quarter play, he tipped the ball on defense, snagged it in mid-air, raced down the court, and fed Lopaten inside for an easy layup.

"Our up-tempo game is what we play now, because we are very quick, we are very fast, and that's what we do," Felder said.

Felder explained that the Jaguars' ball movement on offense requires defenses to sag momentarily, allowing the MAYHS shooters to get open looks when the team passes the ball to the other side on the perimeter.

"We didn't get out to [Kluger] and he hit those shots," JEC coach Noam Lichtman said.

The Jaguars' open looks weren't Lichtman's only concern about his team's defense. JEC's interior defense also needs improvement, he said, as the Jaguars were able to easily get the ball to Lopaten in the paint.

"We've got a lot of work to do," Lichtman said.

JEC had a 4-6 record last season. Felder said that he thought the Thunder looked more comfortable with MAYHS' defensive pressure as the game went on, but that "it took them a good quarter to do it."

Zach Goldberg had 12 points for JEC, including two 3-pointers. Felder said that coming in, he was even more concerned with the Thunder's Mish Apsen, a versatile scorer with the ability to make outside shots and penetrate inside. MAYHS was able to contain Apsen, who finished with six points.

It took the Thunder more than five minutes to make their first basket, and they never recovered from an 11-4 deficit after the first quarter. Driving layups from Shaya Weiss brought JEC to within 10 points on several occasions in the second half, but the team didn't cut MAYHS' lead to single digits until 45-36 with 35 seconds left, when the game was already well in hand for the Jaguars.