Yavneh defeated Canyon Creek Christian Academy 70-38 Tuesday night on SENIOR NIGHT. The win completes the the Bulldogs regular season at 30-4 (10-0).
Yavneh honored their 7 Seniors, completed a perfect run through District 4 at 10-0, and made their final preparations for the TAPPS 3A playoff run that begins next week. Using a more Seniorific starting lineup on this night, the Bulldogs enjoyed their longest opening possession of the season to start the game. A 58 second, 3 Itai Guttman offensive rebound trip ending with the elder Guttman assisting Senior Adam Steinbrecher for a three point hit. Jason Epstein began his final regular season home game with a trio of steals in the opening four minutes of play. 66% of the Senior Adams made the score 9-3 as Steinbrecher assisted Schor at the basket. More Senior teamwork saw David Rudomin set up a second triple for Steinbrecher and a 12-3 start. Epstein was all over the place in the opening stanza, consuming his first of 5 offensive rebounds which led to a big man connection of Adam Schor to Itai Guttman for a 10 point lead. Epstein then disguised an alley-oop pass to Schor perfectly as his fling to the rim looked almost identical to his three point shot. The electric connection got another large crowd on its feet and from there the rout was on. He fired a more traditional pass to Rudomin for an easy three ball to end the first period with a 23-7 advantage. Yavneh was dominating Canyon Creek in all aspects: shooting %, rebounding, and turnovers. Just like the first game, the Cougars could not hold on to the ball and once again did not get a single point from anyone other than two players. In fact, if your name wasn’t Jakob Schroeter you did not score for Canyon Creek until the fourth period. In any event, the Bulldogs kept on rolling with super-sub Senior Captain Sam Kleinman. Kleinman immediately found Itai Guttman all alone in the middle for the first of his 8 assists in very limited action. Kleinman then got a great feed from Adam Steinbrecher for a three pointer and a 28-10 cushion. Ori Guttman took about 8 seconds to become the first non-Senior scorer on this night as he drilled a corner triple for the first 20+ point lead of the game. Rudomin amped up the pace with a pair of steals including one that shot-put him the length of the floor for a great finger roll finish. The lead was 37-14 at halftime with all 14 Cougar points belonging to Schroeter. Yavneh had a mere 4 turnovers to 15 steals and held a 22-9 lead on the boards. They were getting offense from everywhere and the mismatch on paper became all too real once again for Canyon Creek.
Adam Schor and Itai Guttman extended the lead to 41-14 early in the third period with an inside basket apiece. Kleinman then fed a centering pass to Noah Weiss for a little flip shot which mushroomed the lead to a whopping 33 points. For all his hustle, Jason Epstein got into the scoring column off a great perimeter look to the inside by Sophomore David Steinbrecher. Steinbrecher got himself a basket to end the third quarter when Kleinman cross-courted a pass for a mid-range hit. The entirety of Yavneh Nation was having a blast with the score BULLDOGS 58 and JACOB SCHROETER 18 at the end of the third period. Junior Grant Prengler scored 5 points in a hurry to begin the final chapter. With the game on the verge of becoming a 40+ point margin, Schroeter finally got some help. Brian Shrull completed a three-point play and followed with a layup to be the second and final scorer of this game. Schroeter started to really pour it on down the stretch to finish with a game-high 30 points. He became the second straight Bulldog opponent to score 25+, which has been a rarity this season defensively. In the end, though, 19 Bulldog steals were not going to be good news for Canyon Creek. Steve Levine was the steal man late in this one while Jonathan Ochstein scored on two perfect field goals down the stretch. When the posts starting shooting three pointers, the game had officially reached All-Star Game levels of ridiculousness. Schor missed his attempt but Itai Guttman made an early bid for the Sarachek three point contest sweepstakes by bottoming his long distance dedication. The crowd’s reaction was frenzied but paled in comparison to the ovation that Senior Captain Adam Karnett received for his brief return to the court. Karnett got his chance to show off the progress of his speedy recovery and, despite his still healing injury, still would have been tied for third leading scorer had he been wearing a Canyon Creek jersey. Adam Schor led the Bulldogs with 14 points while Seniors David Rudomin and Itai Guttman each poured in 10 points apiece. Guttman also gulped 9 rebounds in his sprint to become the school’s all-time leading rebounder. Adam Steinbrecher chipped in 8 points of his own while Grant Prengler notched 7 points late. Jason Epstein grabbed 7 rebounds, 5 of which were offensive after being heralded in the pregame ceremony as One of the Greatest offensive rebounding guards pound for pound in North America. 3 assists and 3 steals rounded off his solid start and his backup on this night named Sam Kleinman had a game as well. 8 assists off the bench was impressive enough but improving your field goal % by 68.4% in one night is not something many can lay claim to.
Yavneh (30-4) will now prepare to host a first round TAPPS 3A playoff game against the loser of a 4th place tiebreaker game between Irving’s Highlands School and Gainesville State School. The playoff game will almost definitely be next Tuesday Feb 19th. Will the Bulldogs continue their Texas dominance? Will the SRC continue to be a building that no road team has been able to solve this season? Are the Red and Black on a collision course to meet #1 3A power Lubbock Christian in the State Quarterfinals?
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its tenth season, has been written by… Zack Pollack M&M TL-BW-SP-BR