Yavneh defeated Emery Weiner of Houston 45-31 Saturday evening in the last preliminary round game of the David A. Yaffee zol Memorial Tournament to improve the Bulldogs record to 13-12.
Yavneh felt much better about themselves Saturday night as they handled Emery Weiner for the third straight time in 2 seasons. The only thing more comforting than that is they get to do it all over again Sunday morning in a battle for third place. The Bulldogs, down and out after 2 tough losses to New York schools, flexed their muscle early and often in dispatching Emery. The first quarter was played at snail’s pace with Yavneh leading 8-5 at the conclusion. A mid-second quarter run gave the Bulldogs a 17-7 lead that would keep them up double digits for the rest of the evening. Up and coming sophomore Bradley Alhadef nailed a big 3 pointer and David Naxon got some easy baskets off of steals to get some of his confidence back. Naxon had 11 first half points to go along with the tiny Alhadef’s 4 big rebounds in building the lead. The Bulldogs shot 43% in the first half to Emery’s 18% as they maintained a 26-12 halftime lead. The lead continued to grow in the second half. Yavneh’s biggest lead was at 35-14 late in the third quarter as a result of Naxon and fellow sophomore Erez Krengel converting high percentage looks into points. Yavneh was able to rest most of their high minutes players in the fourth quarter but Emery made their push with under 3 minutes to go in the game. The lead had been cut to 39-27 and it was time to finish the game from the free throw line. The only problem was that the Bulldogs had shot just 8-19 from the line to that point in the game. Forgetting all about the team’s previous struggles, Michael San Soucie hit nothing but net on two consecutive free throws and Bradley Alhadef followed with 2 of his own to put the game away. For San Soucie, the free throws capped off his best game of the year. He scored 6 points on 2 solid scoring moves. David Naxon led all scorers with his first double-double of the tournament, 16 points and 10 rebounds.
All 10 Yavneh players saw action Saturday night and it would stand to reason that the will all play again on Sunday. Emery Weiner will no doubt have some adjustments to make for the game in the morning if they are to have any chance at all to snag third place from the underfed Bulldogs.