Yavneh defeated The Dallas Lutheran School 81-40 Wednesday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 16-3 (1-0).
Yavneh began their quest of a fourth consecutive trip to the State Final 4 by notching a victory for the 31st straight time in a TAPPS 3A regular season contest Wednesday. Seniors Jonah Eber and Mason Schwaber combined for 30 points and 15 rebounds while the Bulldogs used their depth to turn Lutheran over 27 times in the win. While the Bulldogs may have come into this contest with the 30-game winning streak in district that spans now 4 different calendar years, they were very much on the ropes early in this contest. Beginning their 2020 campaign with a turnover and yielding a three pointer for a 3-0 deficit, the paint tandem of Eber/Schwaber righted the ship with a great post-to-post dish for a Schwaber finish. Eber then split a pair of Lion defenders for a lefty finish and the first Yavneh lead of the TAPPS season at 4-3. A 15-1 Bulldog explosion would flip this game completely on its side after the initial hiccups and the Red-and-Black were once again rolling. Schwaber capitalized on his first tip-follow of the night, Tyler C Winton set Eber up for an easy score at the rim, and Jason Prager found Hillel Baynash in the corner for the first three ball of the decade for the Bulldogs. In fact, Baynash had been shot out of a cannon in this game with the long distance hit, an assist, and a steal in virtually a flash of caffeine. Schwaber started another break with a strong outlet rebound to Eber and then to Ben Rael for a transition finish. Rael and Prager each finished again on steal/assists for a 19-7 advantage. The first period had gone from slow start to forced Turnover Central as the Bulldogs began to cycle players into the game. 10 forced turnovers and a +30% from the field in shooting built the double-digit lead and Yavneh would pour it on in the second period. Lutheran had struggled in that opening stanza after their initial surge but were still within a basket of single digits before Junior Tom Oster kick-started a second quarter explosion. His leaping offensive rebound in traffic led to a rainbow wing triple from Oster courtesy of a Winton feed to silence the crowd and give the Bulldogs a 22-7 lead. Now overwhelmed with watching shots and production coming from sources they did not even know existed from their advanced scouting, the Bulldogs began to front-run in transition. Schwaber finished another easy money second-chance while Elisha Klein rifled a great pass to the corner for a Noah Ohayon trifecta and a 30-10 edge. Ohayon led the latest wave of hungry Bulldogs to enter the game with that shot, a pair of assists, and a steal. One of those assists set up Prager for his first long distance connection in district as the lead swelled to 35-10. A 22-point halftime advantage came courtesy of nearly double the shooting %, a healthy rebounding +7 edge, and 17 forced turnovers. The most telling statistic other than 7 different players scoring for the road team was Lutheran attempting just one more shot than Yavneh made in the initial 16 minutes of this game.
The Lions would more than double their production in the second half but continued having issues slowing down Yavneh’s attack at any point. Prager would not wait quite as long in the second half to bury another shot from distance as Rael found him on the wing for a 38-13 lead. Schwaber, meanwhile, was doing work turning alley-oop passes into tip-follow AND NONES for what had to be demoralizing moments for this under-sized Lutheran squad. Cousins Eber and Rael began an early celebration for the latter’s 16th birthday by playing a game of catch off the rim, eventually leading to a great Rael to Eber finish for two more points. Schwaber rebound-assisted to Prager and scored another basket off a third majestic assist from Winton, who was hard at work on his passing game in this contest. Rael finished his 15th year in expected 3D (emphasis on D) style, always living up to the hype, as the Sophomore took two more charges and recorded a ferocious blocked shot. The Bulldogs activity throughout this game was impressive as there was never a let-down while different players continued to make contributions to the point that Lutheran seemed continuously shell-shocked. Baynash walked into another three pointer while Avery Levy was busy doing his work on the offensive glass. One Levy second chance opportunity turned into an assist to Ohayon at the basket. On another occasion shortly thereafter, Levy and Reece Parker battled for several rebounds in the paint to find Oster for his second triple in just as many attempts. Parker also connected on a step-through jumper to surge Yavneh towards their first 40-point margin of the evening. What the final stanza of this first district game lacked in score drama, it made up for in other ways. The Simcha Malina Experience was on full display in the final 8 minutes with a legendary 4/6 shooting fireworks show that could have major ramifications on a national level going forward. Malina went into pure Beast Mode with several bruising finishes, and AND-ONE that could end up on video displays in the Basketball Hall of Fame, and a lunging steal at half-court that only a lack of extra petroleum stopped an ensuing dunk. When Nik Krasovitsky provided the final pin-point assist to Malina, Lutheran now had a ton to prepare for in the rematch to come later this month. Despite the lopsided score, this referee crew never let down. They were able to not only award Elisha Klein as a first-time recipient of an opponent intentional foul in his career but also call the first ever Delay-of-Game technical foul for a Bulldog player running around the sideline during a dead ball. While this is just more evidence that everyone is ready for greatness in 2020, Jonah Eber also kick-started the year off to lead all scorers at 16 points/6 rebounds on 8/10 shooting. Mason Schwaber added 14 points to go along with his 9 rebounds on also nearly flawless 6/7 shooting… from the field. Jason Prager and Hillel Baynash also notched 10 points apiece courtesy of their duo of three pointers each while Simcha Malina’s fourth quarter for the ages netted him 9 points. Tom Oster added 7 points on his two triples and also had a team-high 4 steals to lead the attack on forcing 27 turnovers. Also of note, Avery Levy grabbed 6 rebounds (3 offensive and defensive) as a key catalyst in the crushing 42-20 rebounding edge for the Bulldogs.
Yavneh (16-3) are off and running in District Play once again. If Wednesday was any indication, this team presents an issue for opponents with so many contributors as 13 players played with 10 of them scoring points and all of them providing high energy. It could be very difficult to prepare for this team down the road and into the playoffs with so many sources of production. For now, however, the ball is in the court of Lutheran plus 5 more district teams to crack the code and hand Yavneh a long-awaited district loss that has not been seen in now 31 tries. The next opportunity will be Thursday in a back-to-back scenario and home opener in District versus Irving The Highlands. The Blazers play at a very fast pace as well, which seems to be a calling card for all of District 2, and could provide for some great entertainment/high-flying basketball in just a matter of hours.
The Kennel Report, now in its 16th season, is written by…
Zack Pollack +XF M&M
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