Yavneh defeated Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy of Denver 69-65 Saturday evening to win the Dr. Robert Baruch Teaching Tolerance Tournament. It was the second straight season that they defeated RMHA to win the season opening, 4 team tournament. The Bulldogs are now 2-0.
Emotions ran high as Yavneh was pushed to the brink in a tournament final that featured a bit of everything imaginable for two teams just a game into their 006-2007 seasons. In the end, while Yavneh’s frenetic system did not blow away Opponent #2, it did tire RMHA just enough to leave them a possession or two from defeating the home-standing Bulldogs. Having already left their hearts and seemingly every other body part on the floor, RMHA’s legs seemed to give out in the fourth quarter as evidenced by their 2-15 three point shooting. Both teams started the game in extremely ugly fashion, each team with turnovers on 3 of their first four possessions. Yavneh led 17-10 after a quarter when tempers and emotions by the two teams really started to flare. There were multiple possessions involving fist-pumps from each side after key plays in the second quarter. The Bulldogs maintained their lead throughout the first half, holding a 34-29 lead at the break. Erez Krengel and David Naxon led the way with 15 and 9 points respectively. Desi Rotenberg led the way for RMHA with 13 at half. Yavneh’s 17 first half turnovers told the story of a game that could have been a much bigger spread than 5 points. Yavneh came out with a vengeance in the third quarter, building a big lead of 9 points at 42-33. Senior Aviv Schor poured in 6 of his 8 points during that run to pull the Bulldogs in front. That was answered with a tremendous mile-high Denver run lead by Rotenberg again that eventually tied the score at 43-43. Although one of 2 huge Butch Shawel three pointers (followed by another Shawel fist-pump) and a Krengel three-point play put Yavneh back in front, RMHA held the lead at the end of the third quarter {closing with a 5-0 run}. The fourth quarter started as a Yavneh dream… frenetic and back/forth. David Naxon, “The Jumpin Junior”, returned to his form of a year ago vs RMHA in which he finished several post moves. Combined with the second huge Shawel three, Yavneh lead 60-56 with 4:59 to play. Holding a 64-61 lead with 3:56 left, Baruch inserted a more traditional “starting five” to finish the game. With the score a one possession difference at 66-63 and 1:01 on the clock, RMHA chose the wrong Bulldog to put at the free throw line!!! Reprising his role of “ICE” from last year’s Sarachek Tournament in NYC, Erez Krengel calmly sunk both free throws to make the score 68-63. The last minute featured a series of mistakes from some Yavneh veterans including an overthrown pass from Sam Pulitzer, a vicious discard by Bradley Alhadef while attempting a lay-up resulting in an offensive foul, and a couple of other ill-advised decisions by veteran members of the team. This left the score at 68-65 Yavneh with just under 30 ticks remaining. Following Michael San Soucie’s collection of the 12th RMHA missed free throw attempt, “ICE” went to the line to do what he does best and 5.8 seconds left. After making it interesting by missing the first shot, the RMHA coach tried to request a timeout. He obviously missed this show last April. Same old story…Krengel “ICES” the game 69-65. The all-around contribution was great to see as 10 guys chipped in for the victory. Krengel and Naxon led the way with 24 and 15 points scored respectively. Additionally, Naxon, San Soucie, and Schor grabbed some clutch rebounds down the stretch. Sam Pulitzer also crashed the boards, scoring a couple of second chance buckets. The contributions of Butch Shawel, Bradley Alhadef, and Aviv Schor were a welcome scoring surprise as they combined for 23 points. William Zalstein chipped in his 6 assists and 4 steals while Freshman Josh Karnett was also credited with 5 steals. Desi Rotenberg tallied a game-high 25 points for RMHA.
Yavneh (2-0) will play Shelton on Tuesday evening. The schools have not met in several years.
The Kennel Report is written by Zack Pollack