Yavneh defeated Austin’s Hill Country School 66-56 Thursday evening. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 4-0.
Revenge is sweet. Team captain Miles Pulitzer and leading scorers Elan Kogutt and Jordan Prescott remembered the blood, sweat, and TEARS shed a year ago in Longhorn nation. Prescott and Kogutt put up 23 and 20 each, and Pulitzer had his most complete career game with 10 points and 7 assists to shake off a suspect first half en route to a fourth straight victory. For the fourth straight game, the Bulldogs started with turnovers rather than buckets. HC scored off of one of those on the game’s first possession and Yavneh’s road woes of 60+ miles away from the Metroplex seemed doomed to continue. Lets face the facts: whether Seguin, New York, Kansas City, Houston, etc., this team has not traveled well in recent years. All that changed Thursday. The first of three major runs came midway through the opening period with a flurry of Yavneh steals that started fast break layups. Behind 8 points from Prescott on 4/5 shooting, the Bulldogs grabbed a 14-11 lead after a quarter. Pulitzer’s precision passing, Sophomore Ben Romaner’s tough finishes on two different occasions, and a careless Hill Country attack had the Bulldogs in the lead. All of a sudden, however, the post/guard combination of HC’s Justin Andrews and Chase Widener took over. Dominating the offensive boards and taking uncontested streaks to the basket, the tandem went on a 13-2 run to put Yavneh in an 8 point hole. While they were consistently scoring, the Bulldogs key cogs were missing point blank opportunities. Specifically, Kogutt and Sophomore Jake Grief had multiple chances to keep pace but could not finish the plays. What Grief did not do at one end, he made up for on the other to the tune of a game changing play. The first of his 4 blocked shots ignited a 15-6 Bulldog run to end the first half. From there with the Princeton offense starting to kick in, Prescott got easy baskets and finally was joined by his buddy towards the end of the half. In all, Prescott netted 14 in the first half on 7/8 spectacular shooting from the field while Kogutt rebounded from a tough start to notch 9.
Yavneh held the slim 31-30 lead at the half and had played their worst all season. They would come out blazing in the third quarter, though, scoring 8 straight points in just over a minute to let Hill Country know that last year was an aberration. While Prescott and Kogutt were efficient enough to keep the lead at 6 or greater from there out, it was offense from a different source that kept HC at bay. The Captain scored 10 points on 5 of his first 6 shots while dishing out 7 assists on the alternate possessions. This triumvirate of offense blew the game open at 54-37 through three quarters. Only an over-aggressiveness on a still young Bulldog team gave HC the slightest signs of life in the final stanza. Careless passing and mental errors left the lead at 54-45 after the last of Justin Andrews’ game high 24 points. Yavneh need one dagger play to put the game away and it was provided by a Ben Romaner Rumble down the lane and to the cup to finish things off for all intents and purposes at 56-45. Prescott, Kogutt, and Pulitzer led Yavneh with the 23, 20, and 10 while Jake Grief pulled 11 mammoth rebounds against another big front line. Also of note, Romaner was perfect from the field hitting all three of his attempts in traffic. The win was another nice team effort claimed by precision passing and timely defense this time on the road far away from home. HC will bring that big front line and talented guard tandem to Dallas next month.
Yavneh (4-0) starts the public school portion of their schedule Monday at home versus 5A Sunset. While the rivalry has been one sided the last couple years, Yavneh looks to improve on their thus far undefeated season with a throwback win against the school whom they beat to put them on the DISD radar originally.
The Kennel Report, now in its sixth season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
LF 4-2