Hill Country Christian 74-24

Yavneh defeated Austin’s Hill Country Christian School 74-24 Thursday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 4-2.

Austin may be the Texas state capitol but Yavneh’s Bulldogs made sure that Hill Country Christian was spelling all lowercase for the long ride home Thursday. It is extremely hard to play a perfect quarter but Yavneh came awfully close in dominating every last second of the opening stanza on this night. Sam Kleinman found Adam Karnett for a score directly off the opening tip and things only got better from there. When they weren’t deflecting multiple passes on each defensive possession, the Bulldogs were busy scooping up steal after steal and finishing easy layups at the other end. In a blink of an eye the score was 8-0 as Hill Country did not even have half as many shot attempts as the margin of their early deficit. The pace was exactly what the home side wanted, and HC was helpless to stop the onslaught possession by possession, second by second, minute by minute. Most trips were simply steal, assist, Yavneh basket. The score was 14-0 and in all honesty could have been 24-0. Almost compassionately leaving points on the table in the form of missed point blank layup opportunities, the Bulldogs settled for a two touchdown lead to start. Hill Country finally connected on a long range jump shot after a travelling whistle. The shot may not have counted but if nothing else served as good exercise for the action less western-most basketball net. At 18-0 on the scoreboard, the first period’s final sequence was a microcosm of the opening eight minutes. Jeff Young missed what looked for all the world like HC’s first points of the game in and out with less than 20 seconds remaining. On the subsequent possession, Junior Itai Guttman used every part of the rim to improbably drill an off balance, eyes closed fade away jumper as time expired. 20-0 was the score and the game was essentially over. For the first time in forever, the Bulldogs had no turnovers during a whole period of basketball, out shot an opponent 52%-0%, and even controlled the boards. More than anything it was the constant turnovers fueling the Bulldogs offense and the relentless pressure to demoralize a team truly outclassed. Yavneh was getting all the breaks as well. Sophomore Ori Guttman unveiled an off-the-head deflection to Karnett that was shoveled back to Guttman for a layup. Classmate Meir Epstein got in on the act as well with two consecutive steals near mid-court resulting in assists and 4 more points on a 38-12 edge. Hill Country was making up ground in the shooting percentage category but unfortunately could not get off enough shots to make even a small dent in the lead by halftime. Guttman x 2 led all scorers with 8 points for each brother and the Bulldogs gave away the ball just four times while forcing 15 turnovers.

Adam Schor found David Rudomin for an easy look at the basket, and Kleinman snatched another turnover for a touchdown as the lead ballooned to 30 points at 42-12. Rudomin continued his explosive third quarter and combined with Ori Guttman to carry the offense into the final period with the most comfortable of 58-16 leads. Everyone played and contributed in a fourth period meaningless to the game’s final outcome but valuable in overall experience. Itai Guttman came off the bench to lead all scorers with 12 points on a very efficient 6/8 shooting. Rudomin followed with 11 points and Ori Guttman recorded double figures in a breakout 4/5 shooting performance. Grant Prengler chipped in a perfect 3/3 as one of four players that scored without missing a shot from the field. Karnett’s 6 assists were only part of the Bulldogs 28 assists on 34 made shots.

Yavneh (4-2) will travel to Denton Tuesday for a match-up with Selwyn on their carpet gym floor. Much like Boise State’s blue turf, this unique environment can cause visiting opponents to struggle and Yavneh will need to be focused in their first true road game of the season.

The Kennel Report, now in its ninth season, is written by…

Zack Pollack M&M

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