Shelton defeated Yavneh 61-58 Tuesday evening. The loss drops the Bulldogs record to 3-1.
Yavneh took their first loss of the season Tuesday night in the most unlikely fashion, blowing a 10-point halftime. Shelton Sophomore Cole Collins took advantage of a porous interior Yavneh defense, and the raucous crowd clearly shook the group of veteran Yavneh starters. The Bulldogs imploded in the final period with turnovers and mistakes, and truly just could not get out of their own way. In scoring just one single point over the final 6:04, Yavneh led for all but the final minute of Tuesday’s game. However, that minute was enough to record their season’s first L. Both teams scored at will in the opening half, combining for 70 points. Senior David Naxon had another stellar first quarter, scoring 12 points on 5/6 shooting. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 17-7 lead that they would hold for most of the game. Both teams maintained a shooting percentage in the high 50%’s for nearly the whole game. No Yavneh opponent had reached even the 50 point mark this season prior to Tuesday but yet Shelton was able to top 60. Freshman Elan Kogutt sparked the second quarter attack by hitting his first three shots and Senior Erez Krengel added a trio of three pointers to build a 31-18 leas midway in the second quarter. With Naxon in foul trouble, Yavneh did a great job to get to the half with a double-digit lead at 40-30. Both teams turned the ball over an excessive number of times in the first half, and had it not been for six missed Shelton free throws the game may have been closer. The third quarter saw the lead fluctuate between 7-11 points with both teams missing easy point-blank shots. Senior Brad Alhadef knocked down two late third quarter field goals to maintain a 53-46 lead for the Bulldogs heading to the final stanza. Shelton stormed out of the gates in the fourth, cutting Yavneh’s lead to 4 points on two different occasions in the first couple minutes. With just over six minutes remaining, Shelton orchestrated their 10-1 run to finish the game. Collins started to take over, scoring 8 of his 14 points down the stretch. Alyn Jackson took advantage of multiple second chance points to tally 20 points, the majority of which came during that late run. Jackson tied the game on a free throw with 2:42 remaining. The final moments were more than forgettable for the Bulldogs. They included a botched breakaway Krengel layup, a front end miss on a 1-and-1 free throw set, a William Zalstein intentional foul that gave Shelton a multi-possession late, three wide open misfires, and two other turnovers that took away easy scoring chances. Collins would win the game with 1:09 left on an easy interior lay-in. Even with the intentional foul, Yavneh had the ball back down just the three points and 35.7 seconds still to play. But Yavneh would fail to get the ball to the rim on either of their three late attempts at a tie. Naxon and Krengel finished with 20 and 14 points respectively, while Jackson and Collins did exactly the same for Shelton. Collins also retrieved 13 rebounds to record a double-double. The Bulldogs set a season-high mark with 18 turnovers and had their worst quarter of the season in the fourth, losing 15-5. Also of note, this is Shelton’s first win against Yavneh in seven tries.
Yavneh (3-1) will play Cambridge Thursday night. The Seniors will have to bounce back quickly to right the ship with the tough part of their schedule on the horizon, including a meeting with Sunset Public High School fast approaching.
The Kennel Report is written by Zack Pollack.