Yavneh defeated Texoma Christian School of Sherman, Texas 67-58 Tuesday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 19-3 (4-0).
The battle of the Undefeated teams in District 2 ultimately came down to ball security, two big runs in the second and third periods, and a gritty survival performance led by 35 points off the bench from Jonah Eber and Jason Prager Tuesday. The game began in shocking fashion as the Bulldogs actually scored first in a district game for the first time all year. Junior transfer Avery Levy found Noah Ohayon for a mini-hook finish and a 2-0 start but the trend of trailing in the opening minute did find a way to continue for a fourth straight game in as many chances. Texoma reeled off 5 straight points to lead 5-2 in a first period that seemed to crawl. Both teams were very stout defensively while the offense for both sides seemed nervous and anxious. Ohayon had another big time block (his third in less than 24 hours) to erase one Eagles scoring chance. Moments later, Junior Tom Oster not only rejected a Texoma attempt on the baseline but also managed to control the ball and pelt it off the shooter to retain possession. The Bulldogs would withstand an early Eagles onslaught by evening the game twice. Levy and Oster combined on a multi-steal that ended up with Levy streaking to the basket for two points and a 5-5 score. Oster’s shot-assist to Ohayon right at the basket knotted the score at sevens a short time later, while his more pre-meditated corkscrew spin pass to Mason Schwaber in the paint netted Yavneh a lead at 9-7. Thomas Barnett, who would be the game-high scorer in this contest, tied the score at 9-9 and really carried Texoma throughout. The 9-9 first period was about as even a game as you will ever see with each team connecting on 4 field goals, rebounding and missed shots just a single differential, and turnovers deadlocked at a gaudy 6-6. While Barnett was spectacular and Kason Williams connected on a pair of motivational three pointers, it is hard to discount the impact of a 44-0 difference in points off the bench. Schwaber would find Ohayon for a third field goal seconds into the second quarter to stake the Bulldogs to an 11-9 edge before Williams would take the lead back with a triple for 12-11. It was at that time that the bench engineered a 12-2 spurt for Yavneh that would change their fortunes in this game. The game winning basket might well have been that go-ahead corner TW3 from Tyler C Winton off a laser pass from Prager. Jonah Eber, who missed just one shot in the previous game from inside the paint, danced his way for a layup and a 16-12 advantage. Winton, who has quickly become maybe the best passer in the state, threw a touchdown pass to Prager and then picked off a pass that found its way back to Eber on the run for an AND ONE finish. If anyone had missed that sequence, they got to see it all over again mere milliseconds later as Winton was in high gear with multiple steals to go along with his 4 quick assists. Schwaber and Prager assisted Eber for two more buckets to end the first half with the Bulldogs in the lead 33-25. In a strange half of 20 combined turnovers that had a player on each side with 13 points, Texoma knew they needed to overcome 12 giveaways while Yavneh’s 1/8 from long distance was becoming an issue.
As it turned out, the Eagles were never able to improve their ball security issues while the Bulldogs took a different approach to their three point issues from the opening 16 minutes of play. The Splash Brothers decided instead that not only would they make their first major district appearance but also prove that the best way to fix questionable shot selection is simply to make sure they all go in the basket. Prager and Winton buried a trio of combined triples behind steal/assists from each other and Levy. Throw in an Eber score off another steal/assist from Prager and you have a lightning fast 11-0 explosion for a 44-25 lead. This night, however, was not the typical Yavneh run away and hide game. Every time it looked like the Eagles and their very limited depth were ready to crack, they responded like a battle tested team that is not planning to accept their fate as a perennial #2 district team. An 8-0 response almost as quickly as they gave up 11 points was spear-headed by the tenacity of Barnett and enabled by a turnover convention from the Bulldogs. In a frenetic third straight run in this game, Yavneh would respond to the response with 7 straight of their own points right back at the boys from Sherman. Prager was an inferno as he buried another trifecta from straight away while Eber finished off the first of a triangle of timely assists from Junior Elisha Klein. Levy set up Ohayon for a knock down three ball as well for what became a fifth three pointer of the quarter en route to 7/13 from distance in the second half alone. Winton stepped inside the arc for some unknown reason but still side-armed the ball into the basket before completely seizing the momentum with a steal off an Eagles’s leg on the sideline. Texoma was already feeling the pressure but the ending of the third period provided a finishing blow to this first meeting. Oster’s rebound and assist found a shooter open from the land of THREE that Texoma may have seen before on his previous three makes in the quarter. Pistol Prager made it a cool six threes in the quarter (4 personally) for a 59-42 lead. The Bulldogs nearly put in a seventh but as a corner prayer barely misfired with less than a second to play in this epic third period, Tom Oster took an American Airlines glide through mid-air to apprehend the basketball at its peak and flip in a crushing basket to the Eagles. 61-42 was the score heading to the final stanza and 19 points would be too much for Texoma to overcome on the road in this environment even at their best. The Bulldogs limped to the finish in this game with the big lead. The game became ragged and the Eagles held their own free throw shooting clinic to marginally crawl back into the game. Having been the beneficiary of 9 second-half foul calls before being whistled for even 2, Texoma shot 17 free throws by game end. The lead would be trimmed to 61-47 before Hillel Baynash buried a corner three, a fitting dagger on a night that featured the outside shooting display in the second half that propelled the Bulldogs to victory. The closest the score would get is 66-54 with 4:07 to play but the Eagles seemed to have little to no interest in extending the game by fouling. The lopsided foul count actually may have hurt Texoma as they seemed to not feel it was worth the multiple fouls needed to send the Red-and-Black to the line late. The spurtability of this team once again was the catalyst for doing just enough in a gritty win that, despite its aesthetic deficiencies, counts just the same as the first three. Jonah Eber was awesome once again, scoring 19 points on 8/9 shooting and had 4 steals. Jason Prager added 16 huge points on 4/8 three point shooting to go along with 5 assists. Noah Ohayon scored 9 points while Tyler Winton’s 8 points complemented 6 more assists and 7 steals in a valiant effort. Mason Schwaber and Tom Oster did the serious work on the boards with 14 combined out of the team’s 25 while Oster also dished out 5 assists in the win. Avery Levy was also a huge catalyst in the steal game with 4 of the team’s incredible 22.
Yavneh (19-3) is now off to a 4-0 start, having seen two-thirds of the teams in District 2. A new challenge awaits Thursday as they will return to the scene of the only district loss for this school in the last 35 regular season games….slippery Rockwall, Texas. Armed and ready for bent rims, a hostile and always capacity crowd, and a Heritage Christian team that is on the rise, the Bulldogs will need to keep up their strong play to escape with an always tough road victory.
The Kennel Report, now in its 16th season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
TL-BW-SP-BR
PTST3