Yavneh defeated Miller Grove Public High School 38-32 Tuesday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 11-3.
With half of Yavneh’s sensational scoring duo hobbled with the flu and facing a tough half-court defense all night long, the Bulldogs relied on Sophomore Josh Lynn’s two clutch triples in the game’s 28th minute to keep the winning streak on life support at 8 games. In by far the grittiest performance for Yavneh all season long, they simply used another great third quarter momentum swing to make all the plays down the stretch on the home court.
The night could not have started worse for the Bulldogs, digging themselves an 8 point hole while not scoring for six plus minutes to begin. Missed layups and poor shot selection plagued the home team for the entire first half. Junior Ben Romaner finally put Yavneh on the scoreboard with a bump and run baseline maneuver from nearly out of bounds. In fact, both of the Bulldogs first quarter field goals needed all of the rim just to trail 10-4 after a quarter of play.
Yavneh fought back with a nice 8-3 run to start the second period behind a nice laser-beam find of Junior Jake Greif by Freshman Sam Kleinman. However, Miller Grove answered with their own 8-2 run to close out the half up 19-14. Freshman Adam Karnett’s runner at the buzzer kept the deficit for Yavneh at only 5 points despite horrific 0-6 three point shooting and 31% overall shooting. Turnovers, rebounds, and about every phase of the game except shot selection was fairly even. However, it simply had boiled down to Miller Grove’s layups were beating the Bulldogs brickeration from the great beyond.
Had Miller Grove been watching the previous 7 Yavneh games they might not have been so surprised by the 180 degree change in energy as the game shifted to the third quarter. Apparently, Miller Grove Cable does not get that channel. The Bulldogs carved up the 21-14 MG lead much like they have amped up so many third quarters during this run. Junior Jordan Prescott started the run once again with a tough inside finish, and then classmate Kevin Sulski followed his own miss to shave the lead to a one possession game. From there, Yavneh set up their full court pressure defense and were within a single point at 24-23 through three quarters despite 0/10 three point shooting.
What looked like a nail-biting finish needed a “Hero” on this night and Sophomore Josh Lynn luckily had been listening to his Mariah Carey CD all weekend long. Adam Karnett once again cut the lead to a single point minutes into the final quarter with one of his patented steal to layup sequences, this one with a spin-move finish. Having missed all 10 shots from behind the arc, the Bulldogs might as well have set up a tent out there with all the room the defense was willing to give them by the 4 minute mark of Quarter #4. Sulski whipped a pass over to an open Josh Lynn, who calmly made the Bulldogs 1/11 from three point land, lifted a huge weight from the shoulders of a team whose shoulders just had not delivered all night long, and of course gave Yavneh the only lead they would need. Almost in instant replay and in back-breaking style, Lynn nailed another triple on the very next trip making the lead a seemingly insurmountable 31-26. Minutes later, Prescott found Senior Elan Kogutt for his first two points of the game to seal things at 33-27. Even the flu did not keep Kogutt out of the scoring column, specifically when a game clinching play was needed.
Prescott led the Bulldogs with 11 points and Jake Greif had a monster game with 10 rebounds, 4 blocks, and 1 enormous free throw down the stretch to save a ton of drama. Yavneh (11-3) will have one final opportunity this semester to extend their winning streak to 9 games as they rematch with Mc Kinney Christian.
The Kennel Report, now in its seventh season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
MWJR? 3-9