Yavneh defeated Covington Public High School 63-49 Thursday evening to improve the Bulldogs record to 4-1.
Longtime Yavneh rival Temple Christian did Covington Public High School no favors by postponing Tuesday’s game with the Bulldogs. The extra 2 days gave Yavneh more time to stew over their embarrassing loss to North Hills and more than enough rest to overcome a foul-ridden attack by the Lions from Covington , Texas . A rather sluggish start could be partially attributed to the less than capacity crowd of 14 at tip-off. The crowd would grow throughout the evening as would the Bulldogs’ spirits. For the first time this season, Yavneh played their 2 unit system with an emphasis on being under control rather than the frenetic, feverish pace they had been playing. They were still looking to run and applying heavy pressure off of made baskets. Halfway into the first quarter, Bradley Alhadef made one of the most acrobatic backhanded lay-ups of his 2-year Yavneh career to snap a 5-5 tie. The first quarter ended with Yavneh leading 14-9 on the strength of Freshman Josh Karnett’s first three pointer of his career without benefit of the backboard. He had previously chucked 2 such shots off the window. Erez Krengel led the way in the first half with 11 points. Both teams shot an identical 36% but the Bulldogs took advantage of 10 first half Covington turnovers to take command 33-19. Yavneh would have had an even bigger lead were it not for their 2-8 free throw shooting. The score was never close the rest of the way thanks to a rather unusual 1-2 scoring punch. David Naxon and Erez Krengel are household names to combine for Bulldog points. With Naxon having had successful surgery earlier in the day, Krengel still was the leading scorer. However, Bradley Alhadef and Aviv Schor connected with each other multiple times in the third quarter to combine for 29 points and 7 assists for the game. Turnovers and lack of execution cost them dearly in the second half although they did engineer a run to close out the game, making the score somewhat respectable. Krengel led all scorers with 17 points. Aviv Schor netted 15 strong points on 7-10 sharp shooting from the inside. It was almost as if he were scoring for a greater cause. Bradley Alhadef chipped in 14 to further balance the scoring along with his game-high 6 assists. Classic set-shooter Ty McFarland scored 15 points but struggled with just 2-10 three point shooting. The Bulldogs declined to cash in on the freedom shots, hitting just 8-19 free throws. The 11 misses severely damaged Yavneh’s bid to score 70 points for the second time this season.
Yavneh (4-1) will play at Sunset 5A Public High School Monday evening. The Bulldogs are 2-1 all time against Sunset but will need to play them in a hostile environment. Sunset prevailed last season at the SR Center. The game will begin a tough three-game week for the Bulldogs.
The Kennel Report is written by Zack Pollack