Texas Torah Institute defeated Yavneh 50-43 Saturday evening to drop the Bulldogs season record to 7-2.
Yavneh looked like a tired team in the midst of playing 4 games in 6 days Saturday night when they fell to TTI 50-43. TTI was able to take advantage of a pourous Yavneh defensive effort, coupled with Yavneh’s inability to score much at all in the second half. TTI star point guard Dovid Rodin had to control the game to handle Yavneh’s pressure defense. He did a good job but it was Yitz Berger’s 3 point accuracy and Yehuda Kramar’s rebounding effort that did the Bulldogs in. Berger went for 21, Kramar for 12, and Dovid Rodin added 11 to provide TTI with enough offense to hold off Yavneh Academy. Yavneh controlled the 1st quarter, leading by as many as 8. Their 2nd quarter stagnancy chopped their lead to 2 at halftime. This prompted Yavneh coach Chad Baruch to scrap the run-and-gun “shift” offense and switch back to his original starting 5 to slow down the game. TTI responded by out-executing Yavneh in the half court. They won the 3rd quarter by 7 and seemingly never looked back. TTI tried desperately to keep Yavneh in the game, making mistake after mistake. Yavneh got as close as 5 but made plenty of their own mistakes to bury themselves permanently with 2 minutes left. Yavneh played like a team dis-interested at times Saturday night. Lost in the sourness of the evening was a super-human rebounding effort for David Naxon. He pulled down 23 boards for the Bulldogs in just 24 minutes of action. Also, Sam Pulitzer posted an excellent 1st half performance with 10 points on 5-7 shooting. Naxon led Yavneh with 17 points to reel in another double-double.
Yavneh has no time to sulk over this bump in the road. They play a pesky Lewisville Temple Christian team Monday with revenge on their minds, followed by streaking DISD school North Dallas the very next night. North Dallas will also look to avenge a loss to Yavneh from last season.