Keene’s Chisholm Trail Academy defeated Yavneh 58-56 Thursday evening. The loss drops the Bulldogs record to 14-2. That ends the Yavneh winning streak at 11 games.
All season long, Yavneh has developed a bad habit of building a lead, only to stave off a late comeback. Thursday, it was themselves who could not quite recover from a horrendous start in suffering just the second defeat all season. A bevy of early turnovers put the Bulldogs in a somewhat precarious position early in the game and far away from home. A 7-7 first quarter was as ugly as they come. While CTA was busy missing 10 of their 13 shots, Yavneh was just simply turning the ball over 8 times. The turnovers finally cost the Bulldogs on the scoreboard in the second quarter, falling behind 26-21. Senior Erez Krengel did start to heat it up in that quarter, connecting on 3 three point field goals. However, every time the Bulldogs made a run, CTA answered right back. While Krengel finished the half with 11 points, who knows what could have been if David Naxon had been in the mix. Naxon had likely his worst half of the season, scoring just 5 points on 4 shot attempts. “The Scintillating Senior” would show up for the second half in a big way. Before falling behind by 7 points, Naxon led the Bulldogs back with an inspiring third quarter performance. Yavneh managed to keep the score tied after three quarters with 11 Naxon points. CTA continued to get scoring from a trio of players including lead guard Jordan The. The game would remain a see-saw affair throughout the fourth quarter as guards Krengel, Brad Alhadef, and William Zalstein hooked up with Naxon on many occasions. One exchange between Alhadef and Naxon featured a lob that split the defense and drew a foul with the basket, surging the Bulldogs into the lead at 43-41. As the clock ticked under 4 minutes, a two point lead almost instantaneously imploded into a 6 point deficit for Yavneh as a series of turnovers turned to easy CTA transition points. As so many times happens, Yavneh may well have run out of gas during their invigorated comeback. The teams traded baskets down the stretch but a Yavneh run in the final minute left the door cracked open to sneak out a win. Zalstein made a great find in Alhadef under the basket and Freshman Elan Kogutt connected on his patented baseline jumper to cut the lead to 58-56 as the clock churned under a minute. Alhadef was able to recover the ball with a big steal. In the surreal moments that followed, the final seconds could not help but remind observers of Yavneh’s victory over Sunset earlier in the season. Much like Sunset could not find the rim at close range in the final seconds, the Bulldogs came up empty on a Kogutt jumper and a Krengel driving layup before Naxon missed one final three point prayer by only the lip of the rim. A half a minute more and who knows but the wild finish ended an 11 game winning streak that spanned two calendar years. Naxon and Krengel led the scoring with 25 and 20, and CTA had four scorers reach double figures.
Yavneh (14-2) will play at Balch Springs on Monday night. If the inspired team that started the second half comes to play next week, the Bulldogs may roll through the toughest week of the season to date. If instead the Bulldog squad that played the opening half shows up, 2-3 more losses may be staring Yavneh square in the face. While this team has the talent to play with anyone, they must show up for an entire game to be successful next week and beyond. It all may start with taking care of the ball as 21 turnovers will not beat many quality teams.