Torah Academy of Bergen County defeated Yavneh 65-54 Friday morning in a Tier 1 Quarterfinal game at the Red Sarachek Yeshiva University Tournament. The loss drops the Bulldogs record to 32-6.
Yavneh picked an inconvenient time to play their worst of a 38 game season to date Friday, eliminating themselves from Sarachek championship contention. 18 turnovers, 15/53 shooting, and yielding 32 free throw attempts were not the formula for success on this morning. The Bulldogs missed point blank shots that they were finishing with their eyes closed all season long while TABC was connecting on half of their attempts. That was more than enough offense combined with a quarter of a hundred free throws to run away with this quarterfinal match-up. Both teams were very sluggish from the outset, scoring 2 points apiece over the first 3 minutes plus. TABC caught their stride shortly thereafter with a 12-2 spurt. On one end of the court TABC was tallying points on second chance opportunities. On the other end, Yavneh was missing chip-shot layups right at the basket. At first, it seemed like the Bulldogs were jittery or even a bit sluggish. It was clear, however, that something much stranger was going on. At the end of the first period, trailing 16-4, Yavneh could still claim that their last made shot from the field still took place in Tuscola, Texas over a month ago. 0/9 field goals and 9 turnovers made for an 8-minute epoch to forget for the boys from Dallas. The second period began with a miracle…an actual made field goal. Senior Adam Schor found classmate Itai Guttman for a strong finish and it looked for a moment like the Bulldogs had awakened. Moments later, Junior Ori Guttman body-surf assisted Adam Karnett off a loose ball and the momentum had seemingly shifted. Having sliced the lead to 19-11, this was the run that was so desperately needed. On this day, though, it just was not going to happen. An unlikely triple for TABC off an ill-advised Bulldog pass just before halftime punched the lead right back to 26-16 after two periods of play. 13 turnovers and 4/20 shooting with no less than 8 close-in misses doomed the Red and Black but surely the second half would be different.
In every game this season, including the 5 losses, there was always a run. This quarterfinal, however, saw no serious spurt from Yavneh as the deficit would never again sink to single digits. The 10-point halftime margin immediately grew to 15 points in just 58 seconds. After much deliberation, Itai Guttman hoisted a successful foul line jumper using much of the rim. Guttman followed that hit with a tip follow while absorbing contact to trim the lead to 31-20 with 5:15 remaining in the third period. A David Rudomin wing triple actually cut the deficit to an even 10 points at 33-23 two possessions later but that was the pinnacle of the comeback bid. A key opportunity for the Bulldogs came at the end of the third period trailing 40-26 as they got the last shot of the third quarter and then were slated to get the ball to start the final stanza. Rudomin came through with a bank shot as the buzzer sounded but TABC got a stop and a score to begin the fourth quarter. One final key moment epitomized the tragic game when TABC’s Moshe Brum had his corner three point attempt deflect off a bar and in while the subsequent Yavneh long-range attempt hit almost the same piece on the other side and fell harshly to the ground. One final push brought a 15-point game back to a 10 point margin but turnovers and misfires would not allow a serious rally. Adam Karnett and Sam Kleinman scored 20 and 16 points respectively but took 29 combined attempts to get there. The two also connected on 14/17 free throws. David Rudomin added 8 points and Itai Guttman pulled down 9 rebounds to go along with 6 points. Jason Epstein accounted for all 2 bench points, which was yet another concerning red flag given the bench depth of this team’s scoring over the previous 37 games.
Yavneh (32-6) cannot win the YU Tournament but have some serious work to do over the next pair of games in order to salvage 5th place. For starters, the Bulldogs draw host school MTA at 9am Eastern (8am Dallas time) Sunday morning for a chance to play for 5th place Monday. While disappointed for sure, this group of 7 Seniors still has 64 minutes of basketball to impact their final legacy. If the previous 37 games are any indication, their final story has not quite finished being written.
The Kennel Report, now in its tenth season, has been written by…
Zack Pollack
M&M TL-BW-SP-BR