Yavneh defeated Chant 59-51 Monday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 15-4.
Yavneh outlasted Chant and the flu Monday with a solid late fourth quarter spurt that kept the Bulldogs undefeated in 2013. With 5 players inactive due to an epidemic sweeping the Yavneh community including leading scorer Adam Karnett, Yavneh stormed out to an early 10-2 lead. Sam Kleinman was creating early and often, finding both his posts once each during the initial spurt. Chant, though, refused to go away all night long. They responded with a 9-0 first period run to actually take the lead at 11-10. Sophomore Grant A Prengler punctured the Chant run with a wing triple to surge the Bulldogs back into the lead. Streaking Junior Adam Schor gobbled up 10 more points in the opening stanza to continue the dominance that has him sweeping the nation….and the left side of the paint. Kleinman had a huge start with 5 big assists in the first period as well. Yavneh was able to gain some separation in the second quarter with the help of David Rudomin and Ori Guttman. On a night when Notre Dame did not fair so well in the national spotlight, Yavneh’s version of RUDY was busy throwing lasers to the rim for Ori Guttman to finish. With the game very choppy and lacking much rhythm at all, the Bulldogs maintained a 26-21 lead at halftime. With 10 turnovers (9 from the guards floating careless passes) and frightening 1/9 three point shooting, the home team was searching for answers. Although leading on the scoreboard, the Yavneh game pace felt like it had the flu.
Rudomin drilled a baseline jumper for a 28-21 edge early in the third period and finally the Bulldogs were starting to break Chant. A pair of half-court steals bolstered the lead to 35-23 during a 9-2 run to begin the second half. With control now firmly in the Bulldogs’ court, Chant would surely just go away. However, the visiting Home School team showed grit and determination in fighting right back. Once again, the game bogged down with turnovers and bad shot selection by Yavneh. A Chant 21-11 stretch that bridged the third and fourth periods left the game with just a 2 point margin and 3:31 to play. With the Bulldogs needing a basket desperately to maintain a multi-posession lead, Junior Adam Steinbrecher calmly drilled a corner three pointer off an inbounds play for a 49-44 edge with 2:27 left. Chant kept cutting the lead to just three points on multiple occasions but Ori Guttman drilled nearly every free throw on the next 4 offensive possessions. He then stole a pass and found Sam Kleinman for a game sealing layup at 53-46 with much less than a minute remaining. The Bulldogs were under-manned, sloppy, and teetering on the brink but once again victorious. Adam Schor once again combined the aerial view of Big Bird with the opportunistic fortunes of Forrest Gump to lead all scorers with 21 points. Schor’s 11 rebounds also netted a double-double as he continues to mature game by game. Ori Guttman added 13 points, mostly on 7/8 free throw shooting. Itai Guttman digested 14 big rebounds and Sam Kleinman dished out 11 assists to help hold off Chant.
Yavneh (15-4) was fortunate to escape Monday with a win but has no time to relax. Likely still seriously short-handed, the Bulldogs welcome 3A Celina Tuesday night. The teams have developed a nice January rivalry the last couple of seasons with Yavneh finally breaking through with a huge road win last year. For the Bulldogs to remain undefeated in 2013 they will need to get back to playing fast paced basketball with much less than 17 turnovers and 12/15 missed outside jumpers.
The Kennel Report, now in its ninth season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
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