Yavneh defeated HSAA South 61-48 Thursday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 17-4.
Itai Guttman scored 18 points, Adam Karnett added 12, and Yavneh continued their roll through January with a fifth straight comfortable win. The big men started the game working together as Adam Schor found Guttman for a nice finish. The Bulldogs stormed out of the gate, in fact, taking command 11-0. Adam Steinbrecher drilled a corner three pointer, threw a lob at the rim to Guttman, and it was a nearly flawless start for the home team less than three minutes in. Once again, though, Yavneh lost their edge after a fast start and their opponents again were ready to pounce on that. HSAA used a long distance barrage to end the first period on an 11-2 run to trail by only a single basket. The Bulldogs had started so clean in the turnover department but the final minute of the first quarter was a different story. Itai Guttman continued his strong game to break the HSAA run at the outset of the second period. He picked up a steal and galloped down the court for a coast to coast finish and a 4 point lead. The advantage was doubled in a heartbeat as Jason Epstein and Ori Guttman each drained their own baseline jumpers on the ensuing two possessions. After that, the remainder of the first half was an ugly 6 minutes of basketball. HSAA only had 6 active players and 1 of them accrued 4 fouls in the first 12 minutes of play. Luckily for the short-handed visitors, the pace was slow and bogged down with neither team making much of anything. Yavneh led 23-14 at halftime with neither team breaking 37% from the field. After Steinbrecher connected on the corner three ball to start the game, the Bulldogs miss-fired on their remaining 13 shots from long distance (7 in the first half alone)
Yavneh needed pace and they got it to start the second half. Once again, posts Schor and Guttman hooked up to start and that fueled the guards to pick up steals leading to easy transition points. In a flash, Sam Kleinman stole a couple basketballs and finished at the other end to complete a speedy 8-0 run. The play that most likely took the spirit from HSAA was an Itai Guttman no look–eyes closed–tongue out–around the shoulder pass to Schor for a 33-16 lead. In all, the 12-2 spurt that began the third period sent a message that HSAA had indeed not gotten away with anything through a choppy first half of play. With Adam Karnett and Sam Kleinman getting in the passing/dribbling lanes, HSAA started to wear down in a hurry all of a sudden. Above all else, they just did not seem to have an answer for both of the Bulldogs’ big men having quality games and more importantly playing so well together. HSAA made a couple mini-runs to get to within 12 points midway through the final stanza but could never establish a serious threat. Karnett and Kleinman spent much of their time on the court Thursday taking turns feeding a focused and determined Itai Guttman. With the game well in hand, Air Prengler’s busy night was just getting started. He wowed the crowd with two steals, one of which resulting in a corner kick, and gracefully ran off the final seconds while lending a helping hand to a caffeinated HSAA guard. Itai Guttman led all scorers with 18 points and 8 rebounds. Karnett chipped in 12 points of his own to go along with 6 assists and 4 steals. Schor had another extremely efficient night from the field (4/5) while Kleinman dished out another 7 assists, giving him a ridiculous 28 helpers for the week.
Yavneh (17-4) will have an extended break to prepare for an extremely tough HSAA North team next Thursday. Unlike their neighbors to the south, HSAA North is a deep team that returns nearly everyone from the squad that handled the Bulldogs a couple of times last season. The game will serve as another measuring stick for a team just rolling through 2013 to this point. If the guards can keep up the pressure, a multi-big man attack continues to pay dividends, and the bench depth can be a factor, HSAA North could get blind-sided by a hungry team looking for revenge.
The Kennel Report, now in its ninth season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M