Yavneh defeated Denton Calvary 76-54 Tuesday night in a TAPPS 3A Round of 16 AREA playoff game. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 29-3 and keeps the season alive.
Yavneh is back in the TAPPS 3A state quarterfinals for a 4th time as they remained flawless at home in playoff school history with a convincing 22-point win Tuesday. The Bulldogs pace was a bit too much for the more deliberate squad from due north on Interstate 35E. Behind a large contingency of Lions fans making the trip, Denton Calvary scored instantaneously with a three pointer in eerily similar fashion to the Lakehill game. A brief uneasiness set in among all of Bulldog Nation until an emphatic finish by Senior Captain Noah Rubinstein set the tone for what was to come. Calvary had some early success but would only lead once more after Griffin Levine Jr buried his first of three triples to erase a 5-2 deficit. Another Senior captain, Zach Epstein, assisted on that play and also collected an enormous free throw miss for the second chance three ball that surged Yavneh into its first advantage of the night at 8-7. Levine’s pull-up jumper moments later countered another Calvary lead but this time the game would tilt heavily
towards the Bulldog bench. The sometimes turbulent layup game was mostly all roses on this night for Rubinstein, who extended the advantage to 13-9 on a ginormous put-back AND ONE that also drew a second early foul on Lions start post James Helzer. Levine looked every bit the nightmare match-up that Denton Calvary had been losing sleep over the last two nights with a perfect mix of scoring and distributing all game long. He found super-sub Pierce Bell rolling to the hoop and then Daniel Chernikov right at the cup for a 17-11 lead. Rubinstein also assisted Chernikov on a room service finish but the capper on a strong first period had to demoralize a team that was beginning to realize their season would end in just 24 minutes of game time. Rubinstein’s offensive rebound finger roll while levitating in mid-air for what seemed like a fortnight coincided with the first quarter buzzer. A 10 point lead on the scoreboard was courtesy of a field goal % edge of 19%, a quadruple advantage on the boards, and 4 forced turnovers. Calvary would make a 4 point charge to begin the second period to trim the Yavneh lead to 21-15 but the Bulldogs just had too many play-makers and too much focus to allow any type of sustained run. A 9-3 response by the home team saw Levine bury a trifecta and be the recipient of a perfect backdoor pass by Bell for a window finish. Levine was simply fantastic during that second period, stealing a pass for a rumble through all of the lane for a finish and of course one of his patented step-back triples with nothing but cotton as the end result. A 34-22 halftime edge for the Bulldogs seemed comfortable considering they had yet to find their way. After all, they held only a +4 shot differential, had forced just 6 turnovers, and grabbed a mere 4 offensive rebounds. Other than a balanced efficient attack from Levine and Rubinstein, the best was still very much ahead of the Red-and-Black.
Sure enough, the Bulldog pace started to wear the visitors down just moments into the third period. Chernikov played role reversal with Levine, feeding him an alleyoop jumping layup to start. Rubinstein boarded his own errant shot and Epstein drilled a three pointer for a 41-26 separation. Yavneh was starting to chip away at the Calvary armor and it was only a matter of time until reality set in. All the talk coming into this game centered around Helzer and his bruising inside paint game but it was Rubinstein who attacked the rack twice in a row to earn four free throws that put another trio of points on the board. Levine’s around the world drive while saying hello to the entirety of the Lions team continued to push the lead outward. Bell’s attack from the high post got the lead all the way up to 17 points nearing the end of the third quarter but it was his buzzer beating dancing move to the basket off maybe the best pass yet from Levine on the night that pretty much turned out the lights. In all, a 17-6 spurt for the Bulldogs essentially put the game on ice. The first 20 point lead of the night came when Liad Guttman owned the baseline to dish a great setup for a Jonah Eber three pointer. Eber, who also had 2 steals and 2 assists in important minutes, frustrated Calvary with his scrappy defense that seemed to break any momentum they were building on transition opportunities. One of those steals found Epstein for a dagger finish unless Chernikov’s AND ONE had already put the game away at 62-44 a possession earlier. With nearly 4 minutes to play this game was non-competitive and the celebration was in full effect for Yavneh to return to the State Quarterfinals. Not wanting to stagnate a capacity crowd (a good number of them from the Denton side), the Bulldogs introduced the world..and the Calvary to one Tyler Winton. All Winton did was score 5 points in 48 seconds (a 200-point pace over a potential full game) on a pair of free throws and an unnecessary triple to all but his dedicated fan section. All this added up to a Bulldog team that is now proudly among the last 8 standing in TAPPS 3A for 2017. Griffin Levine was sensational in tallying 25 points and 7 assists to lead the way. Noah Rubinstein was nearly as good with 13 points of his own to go along with 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Pierce Bell added 10 points while Daniel Chernikov and Zach Epstein narrowly missed double figures with 9 and 8 points respectively.
Yavneh (29-3) has climbed the mountain to where the other 3 best TAPPS finishes for the school have gotten to. The Regional Final, which has eluded the Bulldogs a trio of times before, is well within this group’s grasp as they prepare for a neutral site war (site and date/time TBD) with Willow Park Trinity. This will be the first meeting between the schools and it will have a trip to the State Final 4 on the line. With history ready to be written and a legacy ready to be finalized for this squad that has knocked down wall after wall, what could be next?
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its 13th season, is written by…
Zack Pollack CTDC M&M
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