Yavneh defeated Stern Hebrew High School of Philadelphia, PA 56-54 Saturday evening in a Tier III quarterfinal game of the 15th annual Red Sarachek Tournament to improve the Bulldogs record to 16-16.
Winning basketball tournaments often requires some grizzly escapes. UCLA (who survived an impossible deficit against Gonzaga) and Florida (down by 1 to Georgetown with less than a shot-clock remaining), the finalists in this year’s NCAA Div 1 Tournament, are a testament to that. Saturday night. Yavneh survived a scare from the Sarachek Tournament’s lowest seeded team but find themselves moving on to the Tier III semifinals Sunday. Staring embarrassing fate right in the mirror with a loss, the Bulldogs poised themselves to run Stern nght out of the gym with their run-and-gun strategy. The boys from Philadelphia led by 4 early in the first quarter as Yavneh’s up tempo game looked stale at best. A 5-13 3 point shooting performance in the first quarter staked Yavneh to a 19-16 lead. The second quarter saw the Bulldogs push the lead up to as many as 9 before a late Stem run held the score at 31-25 at the half in favor of Yavneh. Coach Baruch was not pleased in the least with the poor effort his team was exhibiting nor was he pleased with the small margin that his team led by. When Stern claimed the lead at 42-39 with 1:16 left in the third quarter, one could assume that Baruch’s mood did not get any better. With Yavneh trailing by a point heading into the fourth quarter, the major questions were when” and “ip sophomore phenom David Naxon would show up. Playing in front of tens of family members, Naxon could never get it going. He scored just 3 points in the entire first half on 1-9 shooting and wasn’t much better in the third quarter. With the team trailing 46-43 and just 5:50 left in the game (and for all intents and purposes the meaningfulness of Yavneh’s season), Naxon delivered one of his patented finishes at the rack. He added another runner on the very next possession to reclaim the lead for the Bulldogs. The lead seesawed for a couple possessions until Senior Amitai Scott scored off his own offensive rebound to give Yavneh the lead at 49-48. With 1:45 remaining, Junior Sam Pulitzer was fouled with Yavneh in the 1 and 1 free throw bonus. Having missed his last several critical free throw attempts dating back a variety of different games, Pulitzer calmly nailed both shots. Sam was not done. He would grab 3 enormous rebounds on consecutive possessions to close out the game on a night and in a tournament in which defensive rebounds were a statistic not associated with the Yavneh Bulldogs. A Stern three pointer in the final seconds cut a 5 point lead into the 56-54 final score. Naxon led the team with 17 points on just 6-19 shooting. Amitai Scott pitched in 10 points and a team high 8 rebounds.
Yavneh (16-16) will play the Hebrew Academy of Montreal Sunday at 11am Dallas time (noon eastern) in the first Tier Ill semifinal. Montreal was the 12″” seed coming into the tournament and have lost 2 consecutive games in New York.