Yavneh defeated Rambam of Baltimore, MD 51-44 Friday morning in a preliminary round game of The Wilner Tournament. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 14-11.
In a game truly dominated by the officials rather than either team, Yavneh put together a strong second half showing after struggling early to keep itself alive and kicking for a potential tournament championship Sunday in Baltimore. A combined 50 turnovers, at least 35 of which were travelling/technical violations, killed the flow of the game and simply asked for a survivor. In the beginning though, again, it looked like the Bulldogs would not be that survivor. Both teams seemed tired and out of sorts with no points for nearly four minutes. However, Yavneh took the cake with its 5 turnovers in 5 possessions right off the bat. Rambam jumped out to a 9-4 advantage amidst the sea of early travel calls. Both teams looked mesmerized by some of the calls which featured players travelling while standing still at times. For the third consecutive game, missed free throws and high opponents shooting percentages sent the Bulldogs to an early deficit. Friday looked to be a repeat of Thursday when Rambam’s lead increased to 20-11 more than halfway through the second quarter. But suddenly Sophomore Jordan Prescott arose from a nearly month-long slump to burst onto the Baltimore scene. A steal and a layup started a personal Prescott 6-0 run to instantly cut the lead to three points. With little else going right on either side of the ball, the lead remained 29-23 at halftime setting up a highly pressurized second half task if Yavneh were to still salvage the remainder of its season. A play so indicative of the first half and the last couple games ended the first half when Sophomore Jake Greif arose above the clouds to introduce the basketball to a wall (his first Jake-like block since wearing the face mask) only to see a Rambam buzzer beater on the inbounds to cap the first half. Besides his run, Prescott netted 16 first half points altogether on efficient 6/8 shooting but watched his team miss 10 free throws and allow 60+% shooting yet again. The Bulldogs fed off of Prescott in the third period and did not waste much time. 4 points in the first 30 seconds jump started things and just over 2 minutes in Senior Captain Miles Pulitzer got a steal and a layup for the first Bulldog lead at 31-30. The pace of the game had shifted big time and Yavneh was able to finally impose their will with the 17-5 run that produced a 40-34 lead. With a 6 point lead and 10 minutes to play it made sense to slow down the game and Rambam obliged, allowing the Bulldogs to run off the final 2+ minutes of the third quarter and opening 2 minutes of the fourth quarter with their patented delay offense. By choice, Rambam decided not to come out to pressure the front-runners from Dallas. In fact, that entire sequence would have gone uninterrupted had it not been for a referee error. Clearly in withdrawal from not being able to call a travelling violation for over 2 minutes, one referee called a violation on Yavneh for ACTIONLESS game play. The Bulldog bench was quick to point out that the rule did not exist, and the second referee agreed to overrule the call. Through it all, Rambam had scored a paltry 5 points in the third quarter and put Yavneh in position to control the final period. With 5 minutes remaining, the Bulldogs made their move to ice the game on the receiving end of the best post-nose break Greif inside move and a nice find by Pulitzer of the hot shooting Prescott for a 44-37 advantage. Yavneh’s inability to hit the side of a barn from the charity stripe, a weakness that has bit the team on several occasions this season, kept the game in doubt until nearly the end. An exchange during the final minute in which Rambam missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw opportunity followed by Junior Elan Kogutt making a pair of rare free throws on this day finally iced the game at 49-44. While Kogutt struggled, Prescott saved the day with 29 points and a perfect 7/7 free throw shooting. It was not only a sight everyone was pleased to see but also reminded the entire world of Jewish competitive basketball how dangerous this recently underachieving squad has the potential to be with Kogutt/Prescott both on their games.
Yavneh (14-11) will play the other Rambam (NY) Saturday night possibly through the Baltimore blizzard. With a logjam of the four tournament teams vying for 2 Finals spots seemingly determined by least points allowed, Saturday evening is setting up to be an interesting showdown of who can allow less points in two separate games involving 1-1 Stern and 1-1 Yavneh.
The Kennel Report, now in its sixth season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
LF 7-7
TB