Yavneh defeated Temple Christian 63-58 in overtime Monday evening to improve the Bulldogs record to 9-3.
For years, Temple Christian aka “The Green Team” has been a staple rival of Yavneh. Most every time over the years, Yavneh has found a way to defeat the pesky group from the East. Monday night was no exception. Yavneh gritted out a win in their first overtime game of the year with their star scorer on the bench having fouled out. The game was in doubt until the final minute For years and years, Larry Gordon (known to some as “Little Romeo”) has been testing Yavneh’s stiff man-to-man defense. If he did nothing else Monday night, he finally cracked that vaunted M2M defense of the Bulldogs. TC started out quickly, taking a 6-0 lead right out of the gate. Turnovers would haunt Yavneh all night. 23 Yavneh turnovers fueled Gordon’s unbelievable 12 steals Yavneh aay 20 points on 12 turnovers in the first half alone. That and a buzzer-beating 3 pointer by Arthur Graciano contributed to a 31-25 halftime lead for Temple Christian. Yavneh was forced to switch to a soft 2-3 zone in the second half, convinced Gordon was all drive and no shot. Temple Christian, however, continued to flourish offensively. They would take their biggest lead at 37-27 with 5 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter. David Naxon would finally get going at that point, igniting a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 37-36 with 2 minutes to go in the third. The Yavneh guards would be the story of most of the fourth quarter as they consistently completed passes to the outstretched hand of Larry Gordon, helping him to the majority of his 12 steals. This enabled TC to stay in the lead all the way until 1:41 to play. Sophmore Avraham Adhamy gave Yavneh their first lead with a free throw and under a minute to go. Temple’s poor free throw shooting (8 18) would cost them down the stretch. With Yavneh still up by 1 with 50 seconds left, David Naxon was called for a controversial illegal screen. The foul would be Naxon’s 5th. He would join Sam Pulitzer on the bench as both players fouled out late in the fourth quarter. The teams would trade empty trips to the free throw line in between being aggravated at the officiating for the final 50 seconds of regulation. Darrian Guillary missed a leaning 3 pointer at the buzzer with the score tied at 51-51 to send the game into overtime. In a scene that reminded most of Itzy Ribald’s 59 point performance against Hyman Brand, when he fouled out in the first of two overtimes, Josh Abrams stepped up just as Gavi Wolk had done that fateful Saturday night. Abrams drilled a three to start the overtime and went 4/4 down the stretch from the free throw line to secure the victory. Holding a slim 60-58 lead with 14 seconds left in the first overtime, Erez Krengel might have made the defensive play of the year to save the game. Attempting to inbound the ball under the Yavneh basket, Temple Christian had its inbounds pass deflected by Krengel. Krengel not only deflected the ball but also managed to tip it off Temple Christian’s Cory Rhodes to get the ball back with a 2 point lead and less than 16 seconds left. David Naxon finished the game with 30 points and 12 rebounds. Josh Abrams added 19 for the Bulldogs. Yavneh won despite Gordon’s 34 points.
Yavneh (9-3) will be off until January.