Yavneh defeated Willow Park’s Trinity Christian 76-69 Saturday night in a TAPPS 3A Regional quarterfinal playoff game. The win improves the Bulldogs record to an unequaled 31-0 and sends the Bulldogs to the State Tournament for the second straight year.
YAVNEH IS GOING BACK TO STATE—It took 22 years for the Bulldogs to get there once and they had so much fun that they are going to do it all over again. Exactly a year to the date from their clinching victory over this same Trinity Christian team to punch their ticket to Abilene, Yavneh somehow-someway-somewhere survived an onslaught of 27 offensive rebounds and 20 missed free throws to earn their vacation in beautiful Waco, Texas. As has become an unnecessary custom in these playoff games, the Bulldogs fell behind early again in this contest. This start, however, felt awkwardly dangerous as Willow Park seemed to control the initial 4+ minutes of this game with so much at stake. Trailing 4-1, Ofek Reef delivered a corner triple off a nice feed from Griffin Levine Sr to ease tensions at 4-4. Yavneh would trail 6-4 and 9-6 as well in an opening quarter that bounced back and forth like a title fight. Pierce Bell’s fumbling assist to Micah Romaner for a strong finish was just the start of Romaner’s career night to knot the score at 6-6. Jonah Eber found Reef for a second trifecta from nearly the same corner to ignite an 8-0 spurt and tie the score at 9-9. Eber then pilfered a basketball and found Levine for an AND ONE finish to stake the Bulldogs to their first lead at 12-9, and then found Reef on the run off a nice rebound for the 14-9 lead. Trinity fought back once more at 14-12 before a second wave 7-0 run closed out the first period for the Bulldogs. Romaner and Bell caused a turnover for a free throw and two more three balls found pay-dirt for Yavneh before the initial eight minutes had expired. Sam Schultz drilled a downtown, deep triple and Reef also deposited his third long distance dedication. Trinity seemed well prepared for much of the Bulldog attack but not for the Reef aerial assault and certainly not for the Micah Romaner that was just beginning a game in which he notched highs in points and minutes played. The Eagles were searching for answers for Reef when Levine started to catch his groove. They tried a Box-and-One defense but Levine’s dribble drive ability and Reef’s one on one skills only caused more points and more foul issues. That sequence surged the Bulldogs into a 29-17 advantage as Reef, Levine, and Bell all scored. Levine was boasted his entire repertoire of moves with a pullup jumper and Reef scored on another theft for touchdown. The game-high 35-21 lead came on a fantastic high post feed from Mason Schwaber to Bell at the basket. Schwaber followed that up with a block + on the next defensive possession ending with two Ball Don’t Lie missed free throws undeserved and unfulfilled for Trinity. The Eagles were clawing to try to stay in the game but could not manage to string stops together. Romaner once again showed off his big man passing skills with a setup for Reef as the Bulldogs were picking apart a solid Willow Park defense to the tune of 40 first half points. Reef’s opportunistic rebound in traffic created a freeway to feed Tyler C Winton for a powerful jump stop, textbook AND ONE finish at the rim over a sea of defenders. With that, 40-27 was the Bulldogs halftime lead despite getting pummeled on the offensive glass. A minus 10 in that category and 6 seemingly harmless free throw misses could have been an issue if not for sizzling 66% shooting from the field. Had the margin not been 13 points with this Yavneh team that could not possibly squander a double-digit lead, this tilt had some scary trends working with the free throws and rebounding.
Sure enough, Trinity took full advantage of the openings they had been afforded and really started to gain some steam in the third period. Two more free throw misses and two bad Bulldog turnovers yielded a 6-0 start to the second half for the Eagles. 40-33 was the score off another sluggish start to a half. Levine found Reef for a no doubt rumble to the rim but the margin would vary between 6 and 10 points all third quarter long. Reef executed a sweet leave-off pass for Romaner to finish off glass and then found the other corner for a fourth incredible three pointer causing the crowd to chant TREYfek. Schwaber set up Romaner for a rolling hook shot over the right shoulder finish with the foul for the AND ONE that pushed the lead to 54-44. For all these heroic and exciting offensive maneuvers, however, the Bulldogs stubbed their toes with foul trouble, more and more and oh yeah more missed free throws, and a lack of defensive rebounding James Naismith could not even have hypothesized. With fouls mounting for Reef, Bell, and Levine, lost possessions on the missed freebies, and additional chances to score coming in triplicate for the Eagles, the 54-48 lead after three periods was more than tenuous. Bell found Schultz in transition for the first basket of a final period that could not nearly move fast enough for a Yavneh team that uncharacteristically just wanted to see triple zeroes on the clock. Shaquille Levine finally left the building, if only for a brief moment, as three free throws in a row were actually made. In fact, a 56-51 game (the closest since the first quarter) was opened back up by seven straight Levine points which included a steal for layup and a cleanup follow off a break initiated by Bell’s block to Reef’s board. Levine’s 7-0 explosion in 1:13 of game action may have been his finest work in a celebrated career due to the magnitude of the situation. 63-51 with 5:44 remaining was going to be enough but those last minutes seemed to drag on forever. The missed free throws had become an absolute absurdity but just as ridiculous were the countless attempts the Eagles had at the basket every single time they played offense in the last 5 minutes. It was either a basket, a rebound or 4 and then a basket, or a foul in which they ended up at the free throw line. With all that, the lead never crept under 7 points but two plays may have saved the day. Levine went Sauce Central with a fancy underhand finish on the left side around the entire city of Willow Park. While that pushed the lead to 68-59 and 3:17 to go, the safety of the game probably boiled down to 72-65 a short time later. The Eagles had just scored with the foul after more offensive rebounds and then got their ensuing missed free throw back and had a point-blank chance at cutting the lead to just 5 points with 41 seconds to play. Reef, a foul away from elimination, found all leather at top flight and directed the basketball out of harm’s way. Two Schultz free throws completed the four-point swing back to 74-65 and the Regional Final was finally secured. Dos Primos Romaner and Schultz closed out the game with 5/6 free throws on a night when the team suffered through an epic 21/41 free throw disaster. Ofek Reef led all scorers with 25 points and 9 rebounds while Griffin Levine added 24 points. Both also dished out 5 assists. Micah Romaner missed only a shot from the field and one from the line en route to his career-best double digits at last 10 huge points to complement 7 big rebounds. Pierce Bell and Sam Schultz each scored 7 Senior points and Tyler Winton scored the other three digits to round out the scoring. Also of note, the late Saturday evening Block Party included a trio of rejections from Mason Schwaber, Reef, and Bell as well as two from Romaner. This game was about more than carrying a perfect season, clinching a second State appearance, or even playing basketball. So many times Yavneh basketball is a vehicle for something that transcends sports and competition. Tonight it was the first opportunity for two amazing grandchildren and their basketball team to honor the memory of their grandmother and someone that made it possible for ALL of Bulldog Nation to be afforded these wonderful opportunities and more. The courageous efforts of Micah Romaner and Sam Schultz, along with their teammates, will now provide even more opportunity for a community to begin to heal.
Yavneh (31-0) will now prepare for the State Semifinal on Thursday morning at 11am Central time against El Paso’s Faith Christian. Faith won the 3A TCAL state championship last year, has had an incredible year, and has the size, speed, and talent to make it difficult for the Bulldogs to make it back to the State Championship game. But Yavneh has prepared all season long for this moment that has finally come to fruition. And so it goes…in a year that the SEVEN (7) teams ranked above them nationally (according to Jewish Hoops America) have combined for FORTY TWO (42) losses with three of them already eliminated in their respective state playoffs, the Subjectivity Train rolls on while the Bulldogs simply just keep winning. To win the TAPPS 3A State Title, as the Red-and-Black know all too well, more than prognostications and assumptions will be needed. Three teams more than equal to the task that have had legendary seasons in their own right will converge at the confluence of the Brazos and Bosque Rivers…deep in the heart of Waco, Texas. Can Yavneh win two more games to finish this season how they started it???
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its 14th season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M TL-BW-SP-BR