Yavneh defeated The Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto 52-22 in the third place game of the The 32nd Annual Joseph and Florence Weiner Memorial Tournament in Baltimore, Maryland Saturday night. The win proves the Bulldogs season record to 11-5.
An anti-climactic ending to the Weiner Tournament 2018 for Yavneh saw a wire to wire victory over CHAT in convincing fashion Saturday. Ofek Reef coasted to as lazy a double-double as is possible, the Bulldogs shot a multitudinous 27 free throws, and their stay in Baltimore ended with a win for the third consecutive year. The Red-and-Black pounded the ball inside all game long, collecting three offensive rebounds in the first minute alone. Three point attempt #52 was the charm for Tyler C Winton to bury the team’s second during that stretch, an absolute cannon from straight-away to sizzle the net right off the bat. That combined with a Mason Schwaber tip-follow and later a post move, a pair of free throws, and an Ofek Reef bobbling assist to Schwaber surged the Bulldogs to an 11-3 advantage. A 12-point lead after one period of play was predicated on an attack that landed Yavneh at the free throw line nine times, connecting on a refreshing seven of those. Five forced turnovers and a 28% defensive quarter fueled the fire for a team that clearly wanted to prove the last three games were not their true identity. The free throws continued to pile up with CHAT now in the bonus and, unlike what had been the norm this season, the Bulldogs were cashing and dashing. A 13/15 start from the charity stripe in just nine minutes of game action handed out free points that CHAT simply could not afford against a hungry Yavneh team looking to get well. The lead grew to 24-6 as Zach Bernstein BN extended that lead with two smooth connections. The only friction for the Bulldogs was a slight concern about lingering issues from a Zander Feinstein near-steal turned header in the 13th minute but the Freshman was quickly removed from any concussion protocol festivities. 25-11 was the halftime lead on the coattails of a 19-6 rebounding advantage and a large 17-4 free throw attempt margin.
Schwaber collected an early steal in the pivotal third quarter but this game was taken over and belonged to one Zachary Bernstein. An athletic runner with pizzazz dazzled the capacity crowd, a new record attendance number for third place games in the state of Maryland. With zero chance to breathe or recover from that gem of a play, the fans were treated to a Bernstein steal and finger-roll finish for a 29-13 lead. The Senior guard was absolutely sensational, dishing passes to Schwaber and Reef as well as running circles around a CHAT team that rotated players a mile per minute. Nose to nose they were simply no match for Bernstein, who set the building on fire once again with a spin move that literally had one referee dizzily struggling to maintain his balance. Winton threw a fantastic seeing-eye dart to Schwaber to produce two more free throws and Reef also assisted on a nice Bernstein finish. Junior Simcha Malina connected on a free throw and a nice tip follow. Schwaber assisted Malina on an additional nifty play in what turned out to be a very strong second half. Reef recognized on this night that his classmate Bernstein was the highlight reel and found him one last time. Tyler McBuckets, normally known for his scoring prowess but having an adventurous passing day, threw an alley-oop to Lebron James 7’8 cousin but the player available was inconveniently just Ofek Reef. Nevertheless, the excitement of that pass was all part of the pageantry of this showcase 3rd place game in Baltimore. The circus really came to town in the game’s final moments as Elisha Klein lobbed a floating pass directly into the arms of compatriot Zander Feinstein for a play that will forever be etched in the annals of Weiner Tournament history. Feinstein buried that wing trifecta, notched his first career three pointer, scored a career-high, and facilitated the divine intervention that delighted tribes full of indigenous peoples….all on one shot. Ofek Reef (First-Team All-Tournament) tallied one last double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Mason Schwaber added 12 points and 5 rebounds. Zach Bernstein broke out and stole the hearts of millions with his best 10 point game of the season. Also of note, Jonah Eber (DNP-PD) was named to the 2nd Team All-Tournament.
Yavneh (11-5) finishes the tournament with a 4-3 record and a ton of experience to learn and grow from. The shooting improvement from Saturday boosts the last four games to a somewhat more reasonable 3/60 but still probably needs to continue to trend upwards going forward. There is much ahead for this group, including another interleague TAPPS battle with 4A Pantego Christian Thursday night back at the SRC.
The Kennel Report, now in its 15th season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
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