Thomas Jefferson 54-41

Yavneh defeated Thomas Jefferson Public High School 54-41 Monday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 5-3.   

As people all over the United States brace for the start of the Giving Season, two basketball teams did more than their part Monday combining for a cool 60 turnovers in a 32 minute high school basketball game. Thomas Jefferson barely had more shot attempts than giveaways while Yavneh came up just short of catching their opponents with a 15 turnover second half. The Bulldogs actually started off fairly crisp as David Steinbrecher whipped a pass to Steve Levine from wing to basket for an early lead. Levine was the beneficiary of a Noah Rubinstein pass moments later but TJ matched Yavneh shot for shot over the first 5 minutes of play. The first separation came late in the opening period as Bulldog posts Noah Weiss and Daniel Chernikov each scored on a put-back to build a 10-6 cushion. Both teams were extremely careless with the ball as TJ’s 57% field goal shooting was relatively worthless as it came along with 9 turnovers. A 13-10 lead at the end of the first quarter was about to get a whole lot bigger for Yavneh. Senior Zak Schultz played inspired basketball to begin the second period, picking up a steal, an assist to Jonathan Ochstein, and then finishing his first of a pair of three point plays right at the rim. Noah Rubinstein continued his great run of passing the basketball with multiple assists, highlighted by a great feed to Noah Weiss for another three point play at the basket. Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson so admired Rubinstein’s passing performance that they too decided it would be a great idea to work on precision passing to Bulldog players. 16 times TJ coughed the ball up in a critical and decisive second period. By the time Rubinstein found David Steinbrecher with a nice cross-court pass for a triple the Bulldog run had reached 15-4 and netted a 28-14 advantage. Ochstein made a great play to end the half on an offensive rebound dish to Weiss for an inside finish. 30-14 was the halftime lead, and while 42% was the shooting percentage for both teams, TJ had those 25 turnovers on 14 Bulldog steals and essentially gave themselves no chance to compete. Weiss scored 7 points in the half while Rubinstein notched 5 assists and 5 steals himself.

The third period began in slow motion as Yavneh joined the turnover party in full force. In 6 minutes to start the second half, the Bulldogs scored on just a pair of Steve Levine three pointers. TJ could not capitalize too much as they themselves continued to throw away the basketball at breakneck speed. A 4-0 trot for TJ over a 3 minute stretch sliced the lead to 36-19 but when Yavneh needed a play on this night they got it. Chernikov set up an Ochstein elbow jumper to double the score once again at 38-19 and never again was the game in all too much doubt. Schultz made another tough finish in traffic at the epicenter of the painted area to start the final period of play. Moments later Rubinstein missed a shot only to follow it for a basket, and Senior Grant Prengler bottomed a three pointer for the game’s first 20 point lead at 45-25 with 5:20 to go. In a game lacking all too much in the drama department, Prengler worked Sophomore Zach Epstein into the offense for a layup representing his first career points. TJ made a valiant push late in the fourth quarter with a 12-0 spurt over 2:27 of game time. This trimmed the advantage to 51-41 but only 35 seconds remained. Any remote doubt was quickly squashed as Schultz galloped to his second three point play to put the game away 54-41. Steve Levine led the way with 12 points while Zak Schultz tallied a super efficient 8 points of his own. Noah Weiss pulled down 10 rebounds to go along with 7 points and Jonathan Ochstein also pitched in 7 points, 5 rebounds. Noah Rubinstein’s 6 assists and 5 steals were both tops in that category as the Bulldogs rolled to a second straight victory.

Yavneh (5-3) continues their run through Dallas ISD’s biggest classification Tuesday when they host Sunset High School. 24 turnovers will likely not be a winning formula against a more disciplined basketball team nor will the continued lack of a defensive presence in the fourth quarter. However, if the Bulldogs can shore up these 2 areas a 3-game winning streak going into their tournament in Maryland could be very attainable.

The Kennel Report, now in its tenth season, has been written by…

Zack Pollack M&M

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