Yavneh defeated the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County 66-51 and then the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto 64-48 in the first two of five preliminary games at the The 32nd Annual Joseph and Florence Weiner Memorial Tournament in Baltimore, Maryland Wednesday. The Bulldogs season record now stands at 9-2 with these seventh and eighth consecutive victories.
Yavneh felt right at home to start their quest for a Weiner Tournament Three-Peat Wednesday as they dispatched their 15th and 16th straight opponents in this tournament. The HANC bus rolled in just hours before their first contest against the Bulldogs with no Ron Artest, Metta World-Peace, or much first period scoring to speak of. Both teams looked like deer in headlights for the first several minutes with four combined turnovers before a single point was scored in the basketball game. Jonah Eber accounted for the early scoring with one bank-brick free throw off the window and another drive to the rack that led to a guest appearance freebie connection from Freshman Noah Ohayon. Eber was loving Baltimore early and often with the referee precautions that gave him mini breaks while he was busy drawing free throw attempts for his buddies. Ofek Reef grabbed several offensive rebounds and finally a field goal put back with contact to kick start his legendary night at the office but once that happened he was absolutely pristine. Zach Bernstein was on his game selling insurance right from the get-go and found Reef for a majestic trifecta for a 7-2 early lead. It did not take long for Reef to throw down his first jam in the Eastern time zone this season, netting a 9-2 edge to start. Neither team was shooting the lights out with a combined 4/13 field goals and 3/7 free throws when there was a brief delay due to darkness but the Bulldogs seemed to regroup offensively after that turning point. Mason Schwaber passed the ball exquisitely in this game, including a nice post to post connection with Reef from the diagonal. Reef connected with Tyler C Winton for a Welcome to Baltimore wing triple, and then assisted Eber and Schwaber on the next back to back possessions. 18-5 was the lead after one period of play as HANC could not keep up with the fast-paced game that broke out, at least on the Yavneh side. Winton was practically researching real estate options in Maryland by the time his pull-up three ball found the bottom of the net early in the second period, and his steal/assist to Ben Rael moments later found the Bulldogs up 26-8. Reef was ridiculous all game long with complete control on the offensive glass, an almost perfect run from the field, and a head to the ground surgical second chance finish for the 31-12 margin. Bernstein continued to excel under the radar with a shovel pass to Schwaber for a finish off glass and the 33-17 halftime lead. Winton and Reef used early second half steals in combination with a ton of Eber energy to completely break this game open. Schwaber found Eber four times in the span of three minutes for a right-hand rim rattler and then a trio of slashes to the basket. Reef was pounding the glass, Eber was finishing in transition, and lead grew to a high of 55-25 as HANC could not compete. Noah Goldstein came out of nowhere to score 23 points, almost all in the final 11 minutes of this game to engineer a major spurt for HANC that sliced the lead to 62-44. Even with the Bulldog complacency down the stretch, Reece Parker buried a pair of free throws in the clutch (what else in the storied and budding career of the artist known to many as Mr 4th Quarter?) and Elisha Klein assisted Rael on an out of bounds under play to hold off the surging imposters from Nassau County NY. Ofek Reef started and ended the day with double-doubles, this one a 33 point/13 rebound/6 steal/4 assist masterpiece on 14/16 shooting. Jonah Eber added 16 points while Tyler Winton and Ben Rael chipped in 6 points apiece. Mason Schwaber’s 6 rebounds and 6 assists were also essential in the opening round victory.
The second game of the night posed an interesting challenge with CHAT bursting onto the scene with a roster of nearly 20 Canadian body builders. With Ofek Reef and Jonah Eber locked in, however, they would have needed an army of 40 to get through a blistering opening stanza and probably would have needed this tournament to honor Toronto’s The Six designation of municipalities to get more than the requisite five players on the court at one time. The Bulldogs played either their best or second-best quarter of the season in turning over their opponents and scoring a tornado of points. Mason Schwaber found an engaged and efficient Jonah Eber cutting to the tin for the game’s first basket. Ofek Reef’s first of seven steals resulted in a driving layup, Eber buried two free throws that delighted the capacity Maryland crowd with free tacos, and Schwaber set up Tyler C Winton for a double clutch finish and an 8-4 lead. CHAT hung in early on inside parades to the basket around a slow motion Yavneh defense but the next 13 points all belonged to the Red-and-Black in a flash. Reef was everywhere, seemingly wearing a We The North screen printed t-shirt the way CHAT passers were throwing darts to him on several occasions. He also played ping pong with his own missed shot attempts at the basket and came away with points just about every time during that run. Zach Bernstein was soy good passing the ball, assisting Eber twice and notching a crafty steal on another defensive possession. Reef was nearly Per-fek all day long in the two games but the grandest play may have been a fast break sequence in which he and Eber exchanged passes before the Junior’s lob became a two-handed alleyoop throw down that had multiple nations chirping in the mecca known as the Green Gymnasium. Winton, a native of Canada, ended the breathtaking 7-minute period of a lifetime with a buzzer-beating triple for a 32-8 lead to introduce his homeland to McBuckets 3.0. All 10 turnovers the Bulldogs forced resulted in points and Reef nearly had a double-double in that time frame alone with 13 points/9 rebounds/5 steals. Eber rifled a pinpoint pass to Reef and calmly drained a straight-away trifecta to extend the lead to 39-10 early in the second quarter. As was the case in the first game, Yavneh could not maintain their level as they scored the same amount of points in the rest of the game as they had in that first period for the ages. CHAT used an 18-7 second period spurt to crawl within 13 points at 39-26 but a Nachi Zucker mid-range hit stemmed the tide for a 41-26 halftime lead. While this was a tale of two quarters, the Bulldogs first far outweighed the CHAT second and there never really was a good answer for Reef or Eber on this night. CHAT did get to within 41-30 in the third period before a 14-3 run essentially ended the miracle comeback possibilities. Bernstein fed Winton for a nice jump-stop finish, Reef went Air assist to Schwaber, and Bernstein/Eber steals created more separation. Reef threw a touchdown pass to Eber before his steal/dunk finish dislodged the entire basket and gave Yavneh a second straight in-game delay during this young tournament already. Eber and Reef could do very little wrong and neither could alter-ego ThreEber who broke out for two baskets from distance. The exclamation point probably came with 5:05 to play when Schwaber’s steal ignited a rumble to the rim and a 60-39 lead for the stretch run. Ofek Reef’s 23 points, 12 rebounds, and 7 steals gave him 56 points on the day in the pair of games. Jonah Eber added 20 points and the combination of Juniors Mason Schwaber and Tyler Winton combined for 15 more points. Schwaber and Zach Bernstein each produced 5 assists as the Bulldogs won an second game in underwhelming yet effective fashion down the stretch.
Yavneh (9-2) has now won 16 straight games at the Weiner Tournament and is in prime position to clinch a spot in the Semifinals for a run at a three-peat. The top storyline continues to be the rise of host school Beth Tfiloh and the pre-ordained destiny of a tournament championship for Senior Harris Gartenhaus in 2018, whom the Bulldogs will meet at least once on Friday. There is also talk of HAFTR and their plans to take down BT for a second time in claiming a championship Saturday night. Very few want to address the chance that a Griffin Levineless, Pierce Bell-less, Micah NOmaner Yavneh team could continue to just keep winning but the way Reef and Eber played on Wednesday there may be some re-thinking being injected into Charm City. Meanwhile, Thursday brings two more games and a chance for 18 straight including a late-afternoon tussle with the afore-mentioned HAFTR.
The Kennel Report, now in its 15th season, is written by…
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