Yavneh defeated THE Covenant School of Dallas,Texas 76-35 Monday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 18-3 (3-0).
In theory, it seems that an almost insurmountable task might be to beat this beyond deep Yavneh team by attempting just 12 shots at the basket in the first half. On Monday, Covenant simply needed more at-bats to counter 48 points from the trio of Jonah Eber, Mason Schwaber, and Jason Prager along with more than a little help from their friends. Outside of the good, the bad, and the last 24 hours of Houston sports, the biggest developing story has to be this Bulldog team that has now outscored district opponents by 134 points in 3 games yet has managed to trail to start each. While it may be premature to call this team the Comeback Kids, no one can argue with now a third consecutive come-from-behind victory in district for a now 33rd consecutive, Larry Bird proud regular season TAPPS 3A district victory. On this night, with the momentum entirely on the Covenant bench at 2-0, Schwaber fed Eber for a game-tying scoop finish and then bullied his way to the basket on a second-chance bucket for a 4-2 edge. The Knights buried a three pointer in response as the near-capacity crowd had the Red-and-Black rattled, shaken, and searching for answers. While this Covenant team may be young, it is important to note that the Professor Pete Carril of the LBJ Service Road was still behind the Covenant bench with matching State Tournament experience. Jonah Eber, however, had no interest in making his and maybe the Bulldogs final appearance at 4A bound Covenant as a district rival any kind of rivalry game for the ages. A trio of Eber layups, including two consecutive of his patented half-court burglary rumbles to the basket, started an onslaught that the Knights could not recover from. Tyler C Winton and Prager jumped in on the steal action to follow and made it four consecutive thefts for points and a 14-6 advantage. The 10-0 run saw another Eber finish and one from Ben Rael all on easy transition baskets off defensive energy. In fact, Covenant would score just a single point in the opening stanza after their 5-4 lead in yielding a game-flipping 24-1 spurt in total. Pistol Prager showed off his entire repertoire in this contest with a strong rebound outlet pass that found classmate Avery Levy for a dazzling finish while falling over the baseline. Meanwhile, Schwaber was punishing the Knights inside the painted area using multiple rebounds to create points. Levy took a big momentum charge and Winton assisted twice late in the period to continue a run that would simply not end. A Prager triple left the score 28-6 after just 8 minutes of game action behind 68% shooting and a 6/6, 13-point performance from Eber. The epic run would actually get to 30-1 early in the second period on a Hillel Baynash hostile takeover. His steal and assist to an engaged Levy for an AND-ONE finish followed by a pull-up Treynash trifecta pushed the advantage out to 34-6. But this game was a simple mathematical equation of opportunity and the lack of it. Covenant shot a mere 12 times in the first half of play, mostly caused by 18 turnovers courtesy of the Bulldogs quick hands. Steal after steal turned Knights possessions into Bulldogs transition, creating the 45-15 first half runaway. Rael notched one steal that began a streak of four straight Prager runouts. JP stealthily swiped a trio of basketballs in this stretch that netted him an AND-ONE as well as two more driving finishes at the basket. Winton, who has quickly transformed himself from McBuckets to an assist machine rivaled maybe by Magic Johnson on a good day, added two layups of his own to end the first half on more steal action. Of the 18 Yavneh steals for the game, nearly all of them were live ball room-service runways to the hoop. 58% shooting, an 18-5 advantage in turnovers coupled with a 17-5 edge on the boards, and the mind-boggling 34-12 differential in shot attempts staked the Bulldogs to a big first half lead that they would not relinquish.
Ben Rael officially joined Josh Karnett, Sam Pulitzer, and Jake Greif in the charge taken Hall of Fame with his 13th already this season to start the second half. The Seniors continued to dominant this game while still on the court as Schwaber patrolled the inside with more second-chance points behind 6 offensive rebounds. Winton racked up more helping hands connections to Eber for points on the run and threw a dart to Reece Parker for a high-flying finish at the rim. Eber dominated this game by land, sea, and most definitely AIR for one of his most efficient career games. Just up the road at the Irving Convention Center next week, Zest Fest will take place featuring a host of exhibitors bringing their best recipes for Texas barbecue sauces and the like. Ahead of that event, Junior sensation Tom Oster put on a two-move promotional event for the organizers Monday. His Double-Sauce finishes from both sides of the court on back-to-back possessions had Knight defenders uncontrollably scurrying out of the way as SauceSTER shook his way to the basket in wide open spaces. Simcha Malina had another fourth period explosion, this time on the boards with 6 rebounds in holding off a Covenant team threatening to make a run. Noah Ohayon stemmed the tide with wicked first step thunder and a finish on the right block. In the end, suffocating defense and the ability to score in transition helped the Bulldogs to hold on for a third straight district victory to begin conference play in TAPPS 3A District 2. Jonah Eber led all scorers with 19 points behind 9/10 field goal shooting from inside the paint. Mason Schwaber would add a dominating Double-Double with 17 points/10 rebounds while Jason Prager’s 12 points with 4 steals added a third scorer to double-figures. Tyler Winton dished out 9 more assists for 19 total in district play already. Also of note, Simcha Malina recorded 6 rebounds while Noah Ohayon had his own block party with a trio of big-time rejections to erase potential points.
Yavneh (18-3) is capitalizing on contributions from up and down the lineup through three games in district play. While a different player has stepped into the primary scorer each game to this point, nearly the entire roster has given opponents something to think twice about. But the Bulldogs are not the only 3-0 team in District 2 and Texoma Christian will come waltzing into the SRC on Tuesday night with an equally impressive resume of 3 up and 0 down to start the season. This game figures to be a heavyweight matchup that will give one of these teams a path to winning the district title. Can the Yavneh depth and this starting lineup that has seemed so locked in through three games continue to feast but this time against a team who has yet to blink as well? Will the inside-outside combination that has baffled teams be solved by a pesky group? Will the 33-game winning streak in district live through the Battle of the Undefeateds?
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its 16th season, is written by…
Zack Pollack +XF M&M
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