Yavneh defeated Liberty Christian of Argyle 68-67 in Overtime Tuesday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 8-1.
In a play strikingly reminiscent to the one that secured NC State’s shocking upset of Houston University in the 1983 NCAA Championship Game, Adam Schor conveniently collected a missed shot to calmly deliver a game winner Tuesday. On this night, amidst all the drama, Yavneh delivered a signature win that will not necessarily go down as The Miracle on Merit Drive. It was, however, a knock-down, drag out war lasting 5 periods and not decided until all zeroes showed on the game clock. Truthfully, the Bulldogs played far from their best game and still outlasted the #18 large Texas private school playing 2 classifications ahead. From the very beginning, Yavneh was focused on notching their first win against a school who has become a basketball powerhouse in Texas over recent years. Sam Kleinman found Schor in the lane and Senior David Rudomin connected on a baseline jumper right out of the gate. Adam Karnett had a strong carryover from his stellar Monday game with a trio of steals in less than 2 minutes of play. Kleinman added an early triple and a slick cut to the basket for an 11-3 onslaught right from the beginning. Another Karnett swipe led to a Kleinman layup for a 17-5 start and a 19-10 first period in total. Liberty Christian had taken a pretty good punch to begin last year’s game but something was clearly different this time around. They seemed stunned while the Bulldogs played close to a flawless opening 8 minutes. As a team they out-shot LC, turned the ball over a measly 2 times, and got 5 deadly steals from Karnett, who was off and rolling. He was in such a zone early that even his Ringling Brothers Circus Triple Pump Special found the bottom of the net for a 21-12 edge. Liberty had finally found their legs but got no closer than 4 points in the second period. Adam Schor had the big response with a short jumper in the lane to push the lead back to 6 points during that stretch. Rudomin was well on his way to a career-night when he turned a Kleinman pass into a reverse spinner midway through the second period. The two biggest shots of the first half came to close with the lead once again fading to just 4 points. Junior Sharpshooter Zak Schultz stepped into a wing three point strike instantly off the bench and then set a clutch screen that enabled a Rudomin runner at the first half buzzer. 30-22 was the Bulldogs lead at halftime thanks to 50-42% shooting, a low 5 turnover performance, a lead on the boards, and nearly perfect free throw shootings. To be up nearly 10 points at the half on a team like Liberty Christian, equipped with their usual D1 prospect (12 first half points), statistics have to be solid and they were.
Surely Liberty Christian would not let Yavneh do their typical third-quarter runaway act but David Rudomin had other plans. Flying all over the court at both ends, Rudomin jumped from out of bounds to shovel one steal to Itai Guttman for a pass exchange bucket and a 34-22 lead. Rudomin then connected on a jumper and a transition hoop for a game-high 40-27 lead. Despite taking him nearly 24 hours to find the right check-in spot at the scorers table, Junior Noah Weiss once again recorded a positive statistic within 8.3 seconds as he recorded a quick assist from half-court. Liberty was starting to establish big man Stephen Ugochuken in the paint and the Bulldogs were inspired to help his future Division 1 prospects suddenly by fouling and running the other way versus boxing him out. All this madness led to an 8-3 LC run but an Itai Guttman tip-in re-established a double digit lead at 45-35. Holding a 7-point advantage heading to the final period of regulation, the game pressure started to build on the Bulldogs and what followed was not a work of art. The first 6 points of the fourth quarter went the way of Liberty Christian due to a suddenly inept Yavneh rebounding attack and careless turnovers started to follow. Just in the nick of time, though, Karnett was ready with a personal 4-0 response which included a free throw and a wing triple off a pass from Kleinman. Not to be outdone, Ugochuken held another 4-0 clinic in the lane via the offensive rebound/free throw. Itai Guttman connected on a pair of his own free throws to push the lead to 3 points but then Nick Decello tied the game for the first time since 0-0 with 3:48 to play. Adam Schor tipped in his own missed shot but a pair of LC layups later the Bulldogs trailed for the first time all night long at 55-53 with 1:42 remaining. Senior Jason Epstein had his second straight late-game GINORMOUS rebound under the entire Liberty Christian team’s shoulders and sliced the deficit in half at the free throw line. Having to foul in desperation, Yavneh’s most fortunate break was quite possibly the fact that Tyson Harvey made the second of two free throws to leave the game at 56-54 and 31.8 seconds to play. Had he missed that second free throw, the chances of a Bulldog rebound were probably only slightly better than the Dallas Cowboys winning the Super Bowl this season. In any event, following a timeout, Kleinman found Itai Guttman at the basket for the game-tying layup off the backboard. A corner three ball almost hit the roof for Liberty Christian as time expired and 56-56 would be the score heading for a bonus 4-minute overtime. Rudomin owned the first minute of overtime as he drove the baseline with a passion to get a pair of free throws that he drilled, and then recorded an immediate steal. Adams Karnett and Schor did the rest of the work on that play, connecting for a 60-56 advantage. Rudomin once again in transition popped the lead out to 6 points but Liberty had one more run in them. Kleinman split the defense for one basket and Karnett went coast to coast for another but that 66-61 lead with 1:02 to play in Overtime was not safe from Decello’s back to back triplistic brilliance. Trailing for only the second time all night at 67-66 with 30.7 seconds left, the Bulldogs could feel all their hard work turning into one giant, unwanted moral victory. As Karnett drove the lane, probably out of control for only the first time in 2 games, a victory was slipping off his fingertips. From despair came hope as the ball bounced directly into the loving arms of Schor for a somewhat un-contested put-back. With only 13.1 seconds left to be run off and now a 68-67 cushion for the Bulldogs, Kleinman grabbed a MAN’S rebound. Strategically missing the second free throw after not so strategically bricking the first, Liberty Christian could only throw up a 3/4 court prayer at the Overtime buzzer which looked a lot closer in the air than it did when it fell 3 feet short. All at once, the entire city of Dallas could once again breathe. David Rudomin led the way with a team-high 18 points on 7/10 shooting for his career-high scoring game. He was also 4/4 from the free throw line and played excellent defense all night long. Adam Karnett added 17 points to go along with 8 magnificent steals. Posts Schor and Guttman each added 10 points and combined for 22 rebounds. Schor’s 13 boards extended their tag team double-double streak to 7 games. Kleinman just missed out on his own double-double with 9 points and 9 assists.
Yavneh (8-1) will have essentially no time to celebrate their upset victory and 7th straight overall win. Another team ranked squarely ahead of the Bulldogs in the early-season Texas private school rankings comes calling Thursday night. Cambridge has been thoroughly dominated by the Bulldogs through its history and will have a giant target on its back Thursday as they are lined up to be 2013-14 Victim # 9.
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