Yavneh defeated Community Hebrew Academy Of Toronto’s Wallenberg (CHATW) 41-26 and then lost to The Abraham Joshua Heschel School of New York 66-49 in the first two of five preliminary games at the The Joseph and Florence Weiner Memorial Tournament in Baltimore, Maryland Wednesday. The Bulldogs season record now stands at 12-3.
Yavneh has not exactly seen the Charm City side of Baltimore, Maryland in its now 1.25 tournament appearances in the last 5 years. The Mobtown feeling will stay with the Bulldogs for at least one more day as the first two games ended with a split. Playing both games on colorful but shaky plastic tiles, things started well but somehow got progressively more challenging. The opening game began with both teams having early tournament jitters and slopping their way to a 2-2 tie after 3 minutes. Adam Karnett found Sam Kleinman for a three-ball that opened up a 6-2 lead and Jonathan Ochstein tip followed a missed free throw to end a first period that Yavneh controlled 11-6. The second period became a turnover festival just in time for a charitable end to coincidentally a gift-giving holiday. The teams would eventually combine for a cool 50 give-aways and miss 20 foul shots. A 4-0 CHATW start to the second period made the game close but a nice David Rudomin jumper and an Itai Guttman find of Noah Weiss at the basket gave the Bulldogs a 21-14 halftime advantage. Neither team could make a shot with a combined 13/44 field goals and 25 first half combined turnovers. Yavneh was able to separate in the third quarter by utilizing their size and quickness. With CHATW now 5/24 from the field, Kleinman was getting into the lane and finding his bigs for a 6-0 beginning to the second half. The Bulldogs were yielding offensive rebounds but their opponent simply could not find the mark on this afternoon. Itai Guttman and Adam Schor combined for a simultaneous blocked shot but after that CHATW would end the third quarter with an 8-0 run to pull within 5 points. The run was simply a matter of a team that had missed everything suddenly connecting on a couple shots and free throws while the turnover pendulum briefly swung the other way. The game, however, would get no closer than 5 points with the Bulldogs opening the final stanza 10-0. The critical 5-0 run to begin featured a Kleinman dish to Itai Guttman and a swift Rudomin cross-court pass back to Kleinman for a dagger triple. Itai Guttman then followed with another point blank finish and followed that up with a steal at half-court that turned into a slow motion rumble down the court and to the basket. His drive to the hoop gave everyone in the building a chance to reflect on various things and Jason Epstein continued his near-perfect fourth quarter free throw shooting with another 4/4 to close the opener out. Guttman led the way with a 10 point/10 rebound double-double and Adam Schor added 9 rebounds of his own. Those glass eaters were ultimately the difference as both teams refused to take care of the ball all game long in less than ideal court surface conditions. The entire margin of 15 points was nearly all accounted for with CHATW’s 13 free throw misses.
By no means was the first game Yavneh at their best but it sure beat the night-cap where anything that could go wrong did just that in the first opportunity to compete with National #4 Heschel. Playing without starting Post Adam Schor, the Bulldogs did not seem to miss a beat in the opening period. Both teams wanted to run and the game went back and forth in much cleaner fashion than the earlier contest. A sweet Adam Karnett floater and an Itai Guttman put-back gave Yavneh an 11-8 lead but from there things seemed to deteriorate. What started with pretty good patience to get to the basket quickly morphed into poor shot selection and constant rushing offensively for the Bulldogs. Yavneh held a 14-12 lead after one quarter but Heschel was speeding them up and Yavneh started to get more and more out of rhythm. A 23-5 second quarter for Heschel was the product of shot selection that went from bad to worse for the Bulldogs. With the one critical piece of the puzzle not active in this game, it did not help matters that a second starter battled a sideline stomach virus and yet another starter benched himself with foul issues for most of that second period. It also did not help that every one of the 13 players that marched onto the court in that second period had either the worst or second to worst games of their 15-game season to date. All the usual suspects of turnovers, offensive rebounds, and just out of control panic attacks for a team that looked like a distant shell of themselves doomed the game during that 8-minute stretch. The game reached a 17-point margin in the third quarter before Sam Kleinman notched a trio of assists to put Yavneh on the road to potential recovery. Two finds of Itai Guttman, one on a tricky reverse finish, and a bullet pass to David Rudomin started an 13-6 push. Adam Karnett followed with three free throws but it was Sophomore Steve Levine that calmly lined up a triple of his own just prior to the third period buzzer to pull the Bulldogs within 52-40. The game actually became a 10-point margin early in the final quarter but much like the St Marks loss a missed defensive rotation led to a response layup. This time that began the 6-0 Heschel run that proved to be too much for Yavneh to overcome. Adam Karnett led the way with 14 points while Sam Kleinman picked up 13 points to go along with 8 assists and 6 offensive rebounds. Itai Guttman scored 9 points and picked up 11 more rebounds for 21 on the day overall.
This is no time for the Bulldogs to dwell on the events of Wednesday. Yavneh (12-3) has a pair of their remaining 3 preliminary-round games up Thursday to attempt to earn a spot in the tournament Semifinals. A potential revenge game with Heschel in the Finals could be awaiting Saturday night if the Bulldogs can get healthy and re-organized over the next 48 hours.
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its tenth season, has been written by… Zack Pollack M&M
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