The Oakridge School defeated Yavneh 64-56 Monday night. The loss drops the Bulldogs record to 3-2.
Griffin Levine’s 20 points and 20 forced turnovers were not enough for Yavneh to overcome allowing 12 second half offensive rebounds in falling at Oakridge Monday. The game began with the Bulldogs turning the ball over twice in a row and falling into a 5-0 immediate hole. Their first basket was off a great post to post connection from Micah Romaner to a slicing Daniel Chernikov in the lane. For Yavneh, though, the 1/8 shooting start was a continuation of the McKinney game gone bad. Layups that magnetically found respite in other locations than the basket and turnovers that seemed to be on sale at bargain pre-Black Friday pricing continued to be a theme. Levine’s first steal for a layup cut the Oakridge advantage to 7-4 and another identical play for the Junior point scorer following a Zach Epstein spot-up triple tied the score at 9-9. The best ignition for the Bulldog offense was what it has been all season long….the turnover for touchdown. For the second straight game, though, there were too long stretches of role reversal. Oakridge stretched a 2 point first period lead to 8 points by feasting on unforced Bulldog errors like they were flipping hamburgers on the basketball court. Trailing 18-9, Yavneh mounted a nice 7-1 rally in the heart of the second quarter. Pierce Bell started the run with a stick back and Daniel Chernikov’s short jumper made the score 19-13. The tide seemed to be turning when Zach Epstein leaped into a Look What I Found rebound at half-court resulting in free throws followed by Griffin Levine’s third steal of the game. The resulting free throws capped the run but as was the case all night long, the Owls answered with a run of their own. Noah Rubinstein’s rainbow jumper limited the damage to a 25-19 deficit for halftime as far as the road team was concerned. 27 combined turnovers kept these two teams each in position to win the game in the second half.
Rubinstein continued to make an impact to begin the second half with another mid-range Triipp-hit and an own follow put-back. That sequence sliced the lead back to 4 points but again the home team answered with a 6-0 run back. Scoring suddenly picked up at a rapid rate unlike the first 16 minutes but that made the Bulldogs offensive heroics somewhat unfulfilling. A Griffin Levine transition three ball and then a slashing center-cut three point play at the basket narrowed the margin to 6 points. The craziest of sequences including an Oakridge technical foul, Rubinstein standing at the free throw line for almost 10 minutes of real time, and almost that much time for everyone to listen to memoirs coming from the crowd all added up to an 8-1 Bulldog run. For the first time in forever the Yavneh front line was playing aggressive and getting to the free throw stripe. Liad Guttman’s two hand steal found its way to Pierce Bell for a baseline jumper but the second half was an offensive rebound exhibition for the Owls. The Bulldogs were clicking offensively but after crawling to within 4 points they just could not secure defensive rebounds on multiple possessions that could have put serious game pressure on Oakridge. A frantic ending to the third quarter saw a Levine pull-up jumper and he then started the final stanza with a ferocious drive to the rack. That 42-38 score was the closest the Bulldogs would get as 7 straight Oakridge points followed. 37 second half points would have been more than enough but a lack of any rebounding presence made it impossible to reach the mountain top. Pierce Bell’s pair of steals in succession, Epstein’s second three point hit, two more Levine drives to the hoop, and even a Bell corner triple were simply not enough to overcome the 12 second chances being gifted at the other end. One final stand saw Levine drive and dish to Chernikov for an AND NONE 4 point possession all on free throws that trimmed the deficit to 60-53 and 2:38 to play. The effort was there and the Bulldogs clearly had figured it out again offensively but the lack of any key rebounds ultimately sealed a second consecutive loss. Griffin Levine led the way with the 20 points while Noah Rubinstein added 12 points. The two shared several other similar statistics on this night including 4 assists each, 3 steals each, a combined 8 rebounds….just to name a few. Chernikov, Bell, and Epstein combined to score 22 points more and pulled down 14 rebounds.
Yavneh (3-2) was much improved from a poor performance on Thursday and will look to get back on track in a third straight road contest Tuesday. If they can clean up the rebounding issues and the first half turnovers the recent issues facing this team should be a thing of the past. Cambridge is just a year removed from winning the TAPPS 2A championship and could provide another formidable road test early in the season. Can the Bulldogs put it all together and win away from home?; Will they get on the right side of the turnover and rebounding battle to make things easy on themselves?; will the offensive breakthroughs of Monday carry over?
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!!!!!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its 13th season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
TL-BW-SP-BR