Yavneh defeated Arlington Burton Adventist Academy 83-25 Monday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 8-2.
In their most complete game of the season to date, Yavneh blitzed Burton with 77 points over the first three quarters to run away and hide Monday. It all started with a Guttman (actually two of them) in an explosive opening eight minutes. Sam Kleinman found Itai Guttman on a nice inbounds play for the opening basket, and in the blink of an eye the score became 11-1. Ori Guttman, notching his best career game in also his first career start, drilled two early three pointers and a layup to anchor the offensive siege. The pace and the energy with which the Bulldogs played right from the opening tip set the tone and Burton clearly was not prepared for that. Burton was giving the ball away at a record pace (15 turnovers in the first period) and failed to take advantage of the few easy opportunities that they had offensively. You know it’s bad when the score is 14-1 and the would-be leading scorer at the end of the first period has not even stepped on the floor yet. Upon the insertion of Junior Adam Karnett, things went from bad and worse to outright absurd for the visitors from Arlington, Texas. Karnett pick-pocketed his way to a 12 point first period off the bench and an electric 33-10 lead for Yavneh. Shooting 60% from the field, gulping 10 steals, and forcing 15 turnovers, the home squad was firmly in control. The lead would just keep on growing. An Epstein to Epstein connection (still not brothers) from Jason to Meir on an inbounds pass made the score 43-16 as the Bulldogs just simply kept on running. Steal after steal led to uncontested layup after layup. Reaching the 50 point mark with still time in the first half, a 52-16 lead was the margin at halftime. Karnett was up to 18 points while Ori Guttman followed with 11. The pace alone had worn Burton out but the scoreboard was not helping matters at all.
There were simply no second half adjustments that could help Burton on this night. As the Bulldogs changed their personnel, the ultimate result of turnover for layup remained the same. Sophomore Grant Prengler was the beneficiary of three such occurrences in a row to add a top layer of icing to a skyscraper-high wedding cake on this night. Video game-like numbers were being produced as the Bulldogs stretched out to a 77-21 lead after three periods of play. Burton had ball-handling issues to begin with and 24 minutes of marathon pacing up and down the court without interruption had not left them much in the tank for any fourth quarter magic. When the home team slowed the game in the final stanza, Burton was only too happy to watch the ball move for nearly two minutes at a time with consistent wattage on the scoreboard at long last. Karnett finished with 20 points and 6 steals, all of which led to buckets. Ori Guttman added the 11 points in his first start with zero turnovers in a solid effort. Itai Guttman, Prengler, and Jason Epstein all chipped in with 8 points apiece. The most amazing part of Epstein’s night, however, was his seven (7) offensive rebounds earning him the Little– Big Man player of the night nationally. Every active Bulldog player scored for the second time this season and the team remains undefeated in the state of Texas. Dominance on the boards, a rare single-digit turnover night, and pace that is running teams off the court has this team playing loose and confident as they begin a 5-games-in-6-night stretch.
Yavneh (8-2) has now won 7 games in a row and welcomes Cambridge Tuesday evening. The Bulldogs have dominated the series as of late but Cambridge figures to be much improved this season and will need to be in order to keep up with the pace. Another track meet may very well await Opponent #2 in the gauntlet of games that bridge November and December 2012.
The Kennel Report, now in its ninth season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
TL-BW-SP