Yavneh defeated The Canterbury School of Desoto, Texas 51-38 Monday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to a flawless 2-0.
Yavneh officially called off the search party and the All-Points Bulletin Monday for their basketball playing Seniors as Noah Rubinstein, Daniel Chernikov, and Zachary Epstein combined for 31 points in route to a decisive double digit win on Election Monday. Canterbury sported an athletic squad that grabbed a trio of offensive rebounds while scoring the game’s first bucket, on steady pace for a 58-0 victory. However, Senior tri-Captain Zach Epstein woke up from a pre-game nap with a streaking steal for a layup. That sparked a nice 18-2 run that energized the home crowd early on. Junior Micah Romaner gave the Bulldogs their first lead doing what he has been doing for much of the young season, cleaning up his fellow starting post man’s misses. Moments later, Daniel Chernikov got in on the very same action and extended the lead by following another of his own missed layups to make the score 10-4. Chernikov then stepped out to more comfortable territory in swishing a baseline jumper off a nice pass from Freshman Jonah Eber. After a third straight somewhat slow start, the Bulldogs were off and running again forcing 7 first period turnovers and gliding in transition. Junior Pierce Bell nearly shattered the backboard in boomeranging a triple off glass for an 15-4 advantage. Jonah Eber nearly experienced the flash flooding outside the gym doors while connecting on a deep corner three ball from way out to cap the first period run at 18-2. Yavneh was again involved in a game that they were forcing turnovers, where both teams were well under 40% from the field, and where one team was cashing in on offensive rebounds. The difference on this night, however, was that against the most unlikely of the three opponents thus far the Bulldogs were dominating the glass. 10 second chance points combined with the 7 forced turnovers staked the home team to a great first half edge. Chernikov began the second period with another tip follow but it was a pair of Pierce Bell transition finishes from Eber and Liad Guttman that gave Yavneh their biggest lead of 18 points halfway through the second stanza. Canterbury big man Landon Badgley may not have led on the scoreboard but he did score a game-high 15 points and led the world in missed slam dunks on this night, proving 2 points at a time for a wide open layup is so overrated. The first half was in no way a work of art on the offensive end with the Bulldogs winning FG% 28-16% and themselves missing 11 shots inside the painted area. However, the defense held Desoto to just 9 points with multiple blocked shots, great work on the boards, and 20 forced misses to complement the 9 forced turnovers. Eber’s crafty charge taken and Look What I Found blocked shot was representative of the great team effort.
The Bulldogs became more aggressive in the second half, finding themselves at the free throw line on two consecutive possessions to begin the third period. Griffin Levine returned from foul trouble to find Noah Rubinstein for a corner triple and a 30-11 lead a couple minutes into the second half. While Chernikov sprung to life in the first half for the first time this season, Rubinstein and Epstein’s time was Half #2. Epstein found his classmate for a great power fake finish under the rim and then stole the inbounds for a flipper finish resulting in a game-high 36-12 advantage. Liad Guttman flung a nice pass over to Epstein for a corner triple later in the third period as well. Canterbury made their run in the final 8 minutes but a spirited 21-8 spurt only crept the visitors to within 11 points and 4:08 remaining. When the game tightened, it was just too little too late. Griffin Levine’s ball handling and a couple extraordinary plays from his friends never allowed a legitimate uprising to threaten the Bulldogs still undefeated season. Rubinstein used the old 5-step bus ride tip follow for an electrifying Travelocity finish. If that was not enough, Chernikov fed Romaner on a great post-to-post hookup for the game sealing basket. This was no ordinary hoop with Romaner taking off from the free throw area and sprint-rumbling to the basket before half of the Canterbury community could orchestrate a 95th attempted trap of the night. If the Juniors had done the heavy lifting through 2 games, tonight belonged to the Seniors. Daniel Chernikov delivered a 12 point/11 rebound double-double, Noah Rubinstein also notched 12 points to go along with 9 rebounds, and Zach Epstein added 7 points. Pierce Bell also netted 7 points with 9 rebounds and Micah Romaner’s solid 6 point/10 rebound and 25 altered shot performance paved the way for a Bulldog victory.
Yavneh (3-0) continues its TAPPS non-conference tour Thursday with their first road game of the year. This is anything but just another out of conference game as the Bulldogs will play their long-time rival McKinney Christian Academy. Separated from the same district for the first since Yavneh rejoined TAPPS in 2013, the Mustangs won 2 of the 3 meetings in 2015-16 including a hotly contested tiebreaker game. Through 3 games a host of sources have stepped up on different nights to will the Bulldogs to victory. Can they take this fast-paced show on the road and send a message to McKinney Christian and the world about what to expect from an up-and-coming force to be reckoned with in the TAPPS 2016-17 landscape?
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its 13th season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
TL-BW-SP-BR