Gateway Charter defeated Yavneh 72-59 Thursday evening. The loss drops the Bulldogs record to 7-6.
Jimmy Sykes was good. He scored 32 points. Jimmy Sykes was great. He pulled down 25 big rebounds in dominating the intimidated Bulldog bunch. However, Yavneh fraudulantly made Sykes look like a Mc Donalds “All-American” Thursday in allowing themselves to be pushed around and afraid of their own shadows for the entire second half. Sykes made his statement early, tallying 8 points and 10 rebounds in the first period alone. Sophomore Elan Kogutt fired back with 6 of his own keeping the Bulldogs in the fight for the whole first half. The first half was strange as the game was being played at the very fast pace that Gateway sought. But the halftime score of 24-22 was exactly what the Bulldogs wanted to see as they trotted back to the locker room. Both teams had much to complain about at halftime. Gateway had Sykes lighting it up with a double-double to his credit already but also saw him saddled with 3 big fouls. Even worse, he had been stymied in the final 10 minutes of the half by Freshman Jordan Prescott’s excellent defense. This took away the best attribute of the team’s biggest threat, Sykes’ aggressiveness. Gateway was out of control, falling pray to the Josh Karnett charge vacuum twice and turning the ball over on seven other occasions. Yavneh, on the other hand, trailed for 15 3/4 of the 16 minutes played mostly because they could not convert from point-blank range. A clearly rattled Prescott (on the offensive end) started 1 for his first 11 while Kogutt was limited with 13 tough points while also mired in foul trouble. The two point Bulldog lead at the break was fortunate but surely if they continued to falter at the faster pace, trouble was not far behind. Sure enough, the pace continued and the score ballooned like helium being let out of a balloon. Two quick Bulldog turnovers jump-started the Gateway offense and they never looked back. A 15-4 run out of the gate included seven huge Yavneh turnovers for points. Two freshman kept the Bulldogs in the game for as long as possible. Jake Greif played a monster game, recording a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds. He made the play of the game for his team as one last stand, gathering his own miss and scoring with a foul to trim a 9 point game to 6 late in the third quarter. Classmate Jordan Prescott joined him by connecting his defensive game with offense, connecting on 7 of his final 9 shots for a 17 point, 11 rebound performance. It was the first time in Yavneh history that two freshmen recorded double-doubles in the same game. However, they had little to no help. Sykes became way too much in that third period as Gateway more than doubled their output from the entire first half with 26 points in the quarter. Kogutt sat the bench for awhile in the second half with the three fouls and could not get back into his earlier groove when he eventually returned. Other than a sparse fourth period run, Yavneh did nothing but trade baskets down the stretch and could not trim the lead to a manageable number. A pair of strange referee calls included a phantom Bulldog spirit tapping the ball out of bounds from 40+ feet away from the play (and nowhere near the actual basketball), and a non-call on a jersey violation by the visiting team. Nevertheless, a third period meltdown against a team with a superstar player was not the formula for success on this night. Elan Kogutt’s 19 points led all Bulldog scorers.
Yavneh (7-6) will look to get well against the other charter school (Phoenix) Monday night.
The Kennel Report, now in its fifth season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M