Yavneh defeated Canyon Creek Christian Academy of Richardson, Texas 58-32 Thursday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 24-4 (5-0).
There would be no letdown, emotional imbalance, or trap game. Yavneh made it a clean sweep the first time around through District 4 of TAPPS 3A Thursday with a wire to wire domination of their neighbors to the north. Senior David Rudomin is making a habit of early steals and his theft combined with an Itai Guttman tip follow gave the Bulldogs a quick 4-0 advantage. Canyon Creek’s deliberate style seemed to frustrate Yavneh early and lulled them into a 6-3 game halfway through the opening period. A road game is a road game and the Bulldog bigs seemed unfamiliar with the operation of finishing point-blank layups early and often. The official wake up call make have come from Sophomore David Steinbrecher, who left his usual three point line nest to drive coast to coast for a three-point play at the rim. Adam Schor got a slick half-court steal and fed to Rudomin running the floor moments later for 11-5 and then Sam Kleinman stole a pass for a touchdown. Yavneh had built the early lead to double-digits on the next possession as Kleinman lobbed to Itai Guttman at the rim’s highest point to jump out 16-5. The 11 point lead through a single period was courtesy of scoring from all five starters in the game. The second quarter kicked off Steal-A-Palooza with the visitors well on their way to a season-high 19 thefts with Adam Karnett not even in uniform. Junior Ori Guttman recorded a pair of steals in 33 seconds and found Steve Levine for a quick jumper to extend the lead to 25-9. In all, the Bulldogs collected steals on the first five possessions of the quarter and sucked any remaining life right out of Canyon Creek. Each team scored a mere 2 points apiece in a super stagnant final 3 minutes of the first half. Yavneh’s hoop came on an accidental assist from Levine to Junior Noah Weiss, who had an active game. 27-11 was a substantial halftime lead but a look inside the numbers hinted to a lack of the crispness that the Bulldogs had shown Tuesday. One out of 14 three point field goals found their way through the basket and 9 turnovers against the most passive of Canyon Creek zone defenses left much to be desired.
Rudomin pretty much put the game away to start the third period with a scintillating stretch that included a couple scores, a great assist, and defensive energy that was un-paralleled. Two nifty passes from Itai Guttman to Kleinman and then from Kleinman to Schor broke the game wide open at 35-13. Junior Lee Gelsky was inserted into the game and snagged a pair of instantaneous rebounds to go along with two defensive tie-ups to keep the energy level high. After a trio of district games in which large leads seemed to do anything but grow in the second halves, rebound machine Steve Levine controlled the middle of the third period to extend the lead to a cool 30 points. Levine did his best Kleinman impersonation in using Schor to rack up some assists but it was an electric Noah Weiss feed to Schor that gave Yavneh the 44-13 lead late in that third period to cross the 30+ margin. With the Bulldogs continuing to hoist up missed triples almost in charity mode, the mad scientist delivery of Senior Jason Epstein delivered just the second made three pointer in 20 attempts as a team. Epstein added a floater to go along with another three offensive rebounds, which is pretty much par for the course with him. The last of those o-rebs led to a Weiss celebrity assist that found Senior Adam Steinbrecher at a great finishing angle. Zak Schultz delivered the fourth three pointer in 25 attempts and Jonathan Ochstein got three late steals to complete the 19 for the game and help coast the Bulldogs to an easy victory. Adam Schor led the team with 12 points and had at least a pair of every statistical category except turnovers and fouls. David Rudomin played his second straight high-quality game with 9 points and a whole bunch of hustle. Itai Guttman and Steve Levine contributed 7 points and 4 assists apiece and combined for 12 rebounds.
Yavneh (24-4) will play an out of conference game with Lucas Christian Monday before the first 2 of 5 district rematches. Both Lutheran and Mc Kinney Christian were double-digit victories that could have been more comfortable the first time around. Every one of them is a must-win in order to make the dramatic victory over Brook Hill continue to stand up for the district lead.
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