Yavneh defeated Lewisville Temple Christian 53-48 Monday evening to push the Bulldogs record to 8-2. This is the best start through 10 games in Yavneh history.
For the second time in less than 5 days, Yavneh was able to hold off a pesky Lewisville Temple Christian team late in the 4th quarter to improve on their best ever start to a season. Yavneh was able to discard the poor taste in their mouths from less than 48 hours earlier when they lost to upstart TTI in what may have been their most disappointing loss to date. Yavneh came out gunning early, completely dominating the 1st quarter 16-7. Their biggest lead of the first half was 11, led by the trio of Josh Abrams, David Naxon, and Sam Pulitzer. The Bulldogs took a 27-16 halftime lead into the locker room and were seemingly in control. But, alas. this is the 2005-2006 Yavneh basketball team, aka. “The Cardiac Kids”. Over the first 4 and a half minutes of the second half, Lewisville shut out Yavneh 6-0 to cut the lead to a tenuous 5 points. It would get worse. Still leading 36-32 at the end of three quarters, Yavneh allowed Lewisville another burst to begin the 4th. The score was tied at 36-36 with less than 5 minutes to play. Turnovers again were the story as Yavneh finally relinquished the lead at 44-43 with 2:23 to play. Yavneh gave the ball up an alarming 23 times to charge Lewisville’s second half run. Even the official scorekeeper got in on the turnover action. An error in the book cost Yavneh a point at 40-40. David Naxon’s not-so-phantom free throw was disallowed due to its absence from the book. For some time, that point would prove to be huge. LTC took a 3 point lead at 46-43 with 2:01 remaining. Sam Pulitzer’s two clutch free throws put Yavneh back in the lead 47-46 with 1:03 to go but immediately relinquished that lead on a John Hammar lavup with 57 seconds left. Naxon, being instructed all night to go to the basket, pushed the ball up the court and settled for a left-of-the- foul line floater. His prayer was answered and the Bulldogs lead 49-48. Pulitzer was able to pull down a rebound of another Hammar miss, Josh Abrams sank two free throws at the other end, and it was time for one last defensive stop with 20 seconds on the clock. Abrams, after earlier being told that Lewisville would come out angry to begin the second half, responded with “They’re ——… Forget that, I’m —— !!!” Abrams played all evening like a man possessed. The final play was no exception. He stripped the ball as the LTC star rose for his potential game-tying attempt. With two final free throws, Abrams made sure this one was going into the win column. The tight win eased some of the pain from Saturday night and set the stage for the Tuesday night showdown with DIŞD North Dallas. David Naxon finished with his first career triple-double, 26 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 steals. While the 11 steals breaks Gavi Wolk’s single game steals’ record, the Super Soph has a long way to go to come close to matching Wolk’s criminal mastermind of taking the ball away in the press in clutch late-game situations. (See MTA YU Tier 2 Final) Abrams added 14 big points for the Bulldogs.
Yavneh will play at North Dallas Tuesday evening.