Yavneh defeated Rockwall Heritage Christian 64-42 Thursday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 18-5 (5-0).
Yavneh forced 17 first quarter turnovers, scored the first 26 points of the game, and polished off a challenging three-game road week to remain undefeated in district Thursday. There was simply no time to worry about crooked rims, haunted houses, and past struggles in fossil constructed geographies as this contest got out of control in a hurry. Tyler C Winton jumped off a moving bullet train to start the game recording two points, two steals, and an assist all in the opening 90 seconds of play. Meanwhile, Heritage Christian gave the ball away like there was a brand new Turnover ride at the local amusement park. Jonah Eber scored on a pass from Winton and notched a steal for a layup. Ofek Reef was feasting early on as well, scoring off an Eber pass and a Zach Bernstein BN steal. The score was 14-0 before the crowd had even settled into their seats. Eber threw a pinpoint lob to Reef as well for 16-0 before Mason Schwaber finally got involved, scoring at the rim courtesy of a Reef dish. In less than five minutes of game action, Heritage had taken three timeouts and given up 20 consecutive points. The pressure defense was suffocating and the Eagles just could not get clean looks at the basket until they were a pair of buckets away from trailing by 30 points. The Pelican gobbled up another errant basketball and finished in transition for a 26-0 lead. Bernstein has been awesome defensively since his return from a back ailment and was a huge part of the 26-4 first period on this night. While the 4-0 Heritage Christian outburst was crippling, 12 points from Reef to go along with the 17 forced turnovers were barely enough to keep the Bulldogs in front…by 22 points. Eber found Reef for an effortless reverse layup in traffic as the pace quickened. The Eagles did extend their run to 8 straight points but two defensive plays from unlikely sources only to those not in the “know” stemmed the tide. For those that thought the Dallas community had seen the last great “TO” when Terrell Owens left town in 2008, Tom Oster has provided a refreshing resurgence. His stumbling steal along with a breathtaking charge take by Mo Zander-Feinstein restored order to the game for Yavneh. Freshman Noah Ohayon threw a cross-court bounce pass flawlessly into the arms of Reece Parker for an AND-ONE finish moments later. The Red-and-Black led 44-21 at halftime behind 23 forced turnovers and a good margin on the boards. Somehow, the Eagles were out-shooting Yavneh by 2% despite not scoring until they were behind 26-0. The first half was basically a continuation of the solid second half in Sherman on Tuesday.
There were times in this game that the Bulldogs became complacent and allowed Heritage to crawl back into the game. 23 turnovers of their own and 13 offensive rebounds allowed plagued Yavneh and resulted in needing to make one more run in the third period. The lead was trimmed to 44-27 before Eber started the game clinching spurt with two CONSECUTIVE FREE THROWS. In all, the 7-0 response was capped by a leaping steal by one-time track star Mason “Usain Bolt-like” Schwaber. The passing was once again exquisite with Reef delivering three more helpers in a row to build back a 57-29 advantage. Eber finished one before Ben Rael finished twice in a row. The first was a shotput score off the window followed by another point blank look at the basket. Rael was so ecstatic about his four straight points that he gave one back to Reef for a connection the opposite way. Feinstein and Parker began the final stanza with steals, and Winton connected on a slick finish to extend all the way to 61-33. The 17-6 stretch following the Heritage challenge finished what was started right from the opening tip. The game became frenetic down the stretch with turnovers and missed box outs but this was as wire-to-wire a win as a team can have on the back-end of a tough week on the road. Ofek Reef played just over half the game yet managed 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 9 assists. Mason Schwaber added 11 points while Jonah Eber tallied 10 points. Ben Rael put up 8 points on exemplary 4/6 shooting and Tyler Winton grabbed 7 rebounds while assisting and scoring 6 times each.
Yavneh (18-5) has now won four straight road games in 9 days and sits on top of District 2 with a perfect 5-0 record in district. One more contest away from the SRC awaits Tuesday with Lutheran before the Bulldogs get to play 5 of their final 6 games in the comfort of their own home. Lutheran was also battling Winter-Breakitis during the first meeting which feels much longer than 10 days ago. The rematch should be a battle come Tuesday night.
The Kennel Report, now in its 15th season, is written by…
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