Yavneh defeated 2A Avalon Public High School 42-28 Tuesday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to an overcast fog but otherwise still unblemished 5-0.
In the Land of Avalon there may be orange castles to go along with elves, giants, gnomes, and mermaids; what there clearly isn’t a huge surplus of is good old-fashioned made layups. In fact, the two teams combined for just 30.4% inside the three point line Tuesday with each missing multiple cracks at 2-3 footers all night long. The game was quite a contrast from the first 4 Bulldogs games where they were lighting up both teams side of the scoreboard. This one was nails on a chalkboard right from the beginning as Avalon grabbed a 3-0 lead almost 2 minutes into the contest. Yavneh had chances to score but a pair of point blank layup misses left a surreal feeling throughout the building. Finally, with 4:28 to play in the opening stanza Senior Captain Steve Levine threw up a lefty bank floater that found the bottom of the net at long last. The Bulldogs were forcing their usual turnovers but the sloppiness of the game prevented any real payoff. Levine rifled a lob pass to Junior Noah Rubinstein for a reverse finish and then Micah Romaner found Liad Guttman in transition for a pin-balling three point play with heavy floor contact. This capped an 8-0 Yavneh run and extended to an 8-3 lead en route to an 8-5 first quarter. The Bulldogs sizzled past Avalon in shooting percentage by an icicly count of 20-15%. While both teams missed layups aplenty, Avalon used a 15-4 rebounding advantage while Yavneh forced 10 turnovers while committing only one. The return of Junior Daniel Chernikov was a welcome sight to begin the second period. When the biggest player on the team takes the floor for the first time all season, the casual fan may have a tendency to position their line of sight to the painted area or at least near the basket. But ohhhhh no Chernikov immediately made his presence noted at the free throw line area for the first of probably 154 free-throw line jumpers that will be flying up this season for a 10-5 Bulldog lead. Steve Levine, who for some reason was extremely floater happy on this night, missed one but rebounded it and put up an even higher rainbow for a 12-5 edge. Griffin Levine dished a nice pass to Junior Zach Epstein for a wing triple which seemed to put Yavneh to a commanding lead but Avalon responded with a slow motion 5-1 jog to end the half. Their spurt was mostly predicated on crashing the offensive glass and one sequence set the home team back more than any other when Avalon made 1/2 free throws but rebounded the miss for an easy put-back layup. The 17-14 halftime lead for Yavneh was tenuous thanks to a 20-7 rebounding disadvantage. Shooting just 24% from the field, missing 5 free throws, and missing 11 layups all contributed to the most unproductive half of the season to date.
By no means was the second half an offensive explosion but it sure felt more free flowing for Yavneh right out of the locker room. Rubinstein drilled a corner three ball, Chernikov connected on a second foul line jumper, and suddenly the lead had reached double figures for the first time at 24-14. The run to start the second half would reach 11-0 as Rubinstein connected on a tip follow and then used a nice back-down move to extend the lead to 28-14. Steve Levine broke ground with a steal that actually ended with a MADE layup in transition and moments later Epstein did the same in transition for 32-16. Avalon looked finished when out of nowhere they responded with a 7-0 outburst keyed by Carlos Gatlin’s shooting barrage. If its true that championship teams finish quarters strong, then Avalon may have a good run in them this year because they dominated the end of both the second and the third period on this night. Rubinstein seemed to turn the momentum by taking a charge to begin the final period but the lead was sliced to 32-25 as the run reached 9 straight Avalon points on another Gatlin mid-range jumper. Senior captain Jonathan Ochstein once again took to the baseline in stopping an opponent run and it was clearly the basket that swung the game back into the Bulldogs favor. Steve Levine would add a pair of back-to-back dagger three pointers to make an 8-point game a laughable 14 point margin in matter of 30 seconds time. Those 6 points outscored Avalon for two whole quarters in the game and most certainly were too much to overcome for the visitors. The two shots also gave Levine a team-high 12 points to go along with 5 steals. Noah Rubinstein followed with 11 points, 5 steals, and 5 rebounds. Zach Epstein added 6 points in 9 minutes in a game where all points were highly valuable with a combined 70 all that was recorded for both teams.
Yavneh (5-0) has now shown the ability to win the shootout as well as the grind-it-out defensive slug-fest. Their biggest test so far, however, awaits on Thursday as Arlington Oakridge comes to town. The Bulldogs have never beaten Oakridge and have not beaten an SPC school in over 15 years when they had their lone win against Greenhill. This should be a good challenge for this up and coming squad who is also starting to get healthier with the return of Chernikov. If ever there was a team with the offensive firepower to score with an SPC team this looks like the team to do it.
The Kennel Report, now in its twelfth season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
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