Celina High School defeated Yavneh 51-44 Friday morning. The loss drops the Bulldogs record to 13-4.
An inability to protect both the basketball and the defensive glass finally caught up with Yavneh Friday, who got far from the perfect performance they needed to win with only 8 players (1 post). 19 turnovers and 15 offensive rebounds allowed gave a quality public school just too many extra possessions to be able to sneak out a tough road win.
Celina jumped out right from the start and never trailed throughout the entire game. The opening period saw Yavneh even the score on at least 3 occasions after falling behind by 4 points. The highlight for the Bulldogs was a duplicitous pump fake by Senior Shimi Wolk that resulted in him getting tackled and awarded a pair of free throws. In fact, Celina was comprised of several regular football players and the game became extremely physical at times as a result. Having trailed by only 3 points after a period, Celina extended their advantage to 20-13 in the second stanza behind the plethora of second and third chances at the basket. The Bulldogs finished the half strong with a 9-4 run but still were behind 24-22 at halftime. Shooting was almost even but the 9 Yavneh turnovers coupled with the miscues on the defensive glass were the difference.
A new half brought the same Bulldog errors and in turn Celina stretched the lead back to 7 points at 29-22. Despite all their issues, Yavneh made that third quarter run that they invariably engineer. Once again Junior Jordan Prescott started it with a sweeping drive to the basket, and when classmate Jake Greif finished a layup off of a beautiful feed from Senior Zev Klein the score was suddenly 29-26. Prescott finished the 12-5 run for the visitors with a pair of transition finishes to knot the score at 34-34. It was at that key moment that Celina answered with a questionable NBA 3 point play in terms of continuation that is rarely allowed in high school basketball. Celina tacked on a bucket to end the third period 39-34.
Unlike Wednesday where a late run saved the Yavneh winning streak from being broken, it was just not there far away from home on this day. As the game scrambled late, the Bulldogs were still getting the steals to put themselves in position but were not converting those into points this time. On no less than 5 key occasions, Celina turnovers were let off the hook with either subsequent Yavneh turnovers or poor shot selection. While the game never got closer than a four point margin down the stretch, there was one opening with 1:42 to play. Prescott nailed a pair of pressure free throws but misfired on the front end of a 1-and-1 following his athletic steal that would have cut the lead to a single possession. Elan Kogutt led all scorers with 17 points and collected 11 rebounds for his second straight double-double. Prescott added 16 himself but none of the “Big 3” played well shooting a combined 12/38 with 16 turnovers.
Ending the calendar year by losing for the first time in over a month and a half will motivate the Bulldogs for a brutal January schedule. Yavneh (13-4) plays at Lutheran Tuesday night in the middle game of a three game road swing in tough places to play. With a full complement of players available once again, there is no reason to think that the Red and Black will be ready to start a brand new winning streak to bring in 2011.
Only time will tell!!
The Kennel Report, now in its seventh season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
MWJR? 3-9