Yavneh defeated The Charles E Smith Jewish Day School 72-52 Saturday night at the Memphis Cooper Invitational Tournament. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 2-1.
Yavneh’s front court duo of Adam Schor and Itai Guttman combined for 31 points and 24 rebounds in bouncing back to earn an opportunity at a 5th place finish in Memphis. After missing out on an opportunity to play for the tournament championship in failing to execute down the stretch against the tournament’s #1 seed, the Bulldogs left nothing to chance Saturday night. Yavneh got off to a quick 5-2 lead when Schor found Junior Zak Schultz in the corner ready to deposit a triple. After getting pushed around and rattled by a pesky Chicago outfit on Friday, the post tandem of Schor and Guttman were focused and on the money 30 hours later. Senior Captain Sam Kleinman found Schor for the first of several three point play opportunities in the lane and Guttman made his best one-on-one move of the young season in carrying a defender to/through the basket for a 18-10 advantage. As the second period started another Schor three-point play opportunity extended the lead to 9 points. JDS was a physical group but the Bulldogs stood strong to every push, bump, and hip check. A chaotic second quarter uglied the game and put JDS well into the double bonus with over 6 minutes remaining. Had Yavneh been able to connect on their free throws the lead would have grown to solid double digits. As it was, the Bulldogs claimed a 24-13 edge when Guttman connected with brother Ori Guttman on a short baseline runner to mark his dramatic return (HCS). The game stagnated with all the fouling and missed free throws but the Bulldogs maintained a 32-25 halftime lead on the wings of a big charge taken by Sophomore David Steinbrecher. The game continued to be ultra-physical and just 2 minutes into the third period JDS Yavneh seemed to be caving in. They were an atrocious 8/20 from the not so free throw stripe. The score had also tightened to 35-30 and a big time spark was needed. The front line once again did not disappoint. A nifty sideline pass led to an Itai Guttman three-point play to bump the lead back up to 8 points. On the next pair of possessions Guttman and Schor showed off with some sensational passing. On the first, Schor lobbed to Guttman who threw a touch-pass back to Schor for a bucket. The two would hook up again in reverse to re-establish a 10 point lead. The dagger sequence that followed buried JDS and assured the Bulldogs a chance to play for fifth place on Sunday. Guttman found Junior Grant Prengler for a three point rocket from the wing complete with a WWE body-slam. Prengler knew exactly what he was doing when he missed the accompanying free throw directly back into the hands of Guttman for a follow and a 49-34 advantage late in the third period. The final stanza was nothing more than a glorified free throw contest and at long last Yavneh was winning even that. While nearly the entire Bulldog roster figured out how not to make free throws, Senior David Rudomin was rare perfection. His 8/8 masterpiece went along with an all-around solid effort at well less than 100% in the health department. As JDS started to completely wear down the margin started to get out of hand. The lead had reached 24 when Schor found Kleinman for a corner three ball immediately followed by a steal/assist from Kleinman back to Rudomin. Sophomore Noah Weiss closed out the game with a show of his own, collecting 3 rebounds, a steal, a free throw, and his first career field goal all in a very active final 3 minutes. The final moments featured a different type of missed layup from the previous game, with one Bulldog hybrid resorting to what seemed like a trick shot to the crowd’s delight. Adam Schor led all scorers with 17 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 assists in recording a second double-double in the first trio of games. Itai Guttman punched in 14 points/10 rebounds as well for his double-double. David Rudomin notched the 10 points behind his free throw perfection and both Captain guards Sam Kleinman/Adam Karnett contributed 9 points.
Yavneh (2-1) will play for 5th place Sunday and attempt to bottle a whole lot of Tennessee momentum for the beginning of their Texas schedule on Thursday.
The Kennel Report, now in its tenth season, has been written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
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