McKinney Christian defeated Yavneh 52-47 Wednesday night. The loss closes out the Bulldogs regular season record at 21-11 (9-8).
Playing their third game in as many nights, Yavneh could not quite recover from an early onslaught by a motivated McKinney Christian team to win the District 3 4th place spot Wednesday. From the start, the Bulldogs looked lethargic, tired, battered, bruised, dazed, and confused all at once. In the first 4 minutes of the game it seemed as if all Yavneh’s collective problems at times throughout the season were showcased together in a world premiere movie. Opponent rim runs for uncontested layups, lack of any type of a box-out and allowing multiple chances to score easy baskets, impatience on the offensive end in firing up stray bullet after stray bullet, unforced turnovers from lack of even catching a basketball, and of course the missed layups. 10-0 was the McKinney lead to begin before Steve Levine found Noah Rubinstein on an inbounds bucket. Another 8 points for the Mustangs would follow with only a single Yavneh free throw lighting up the other side of the scoreboard. The deficit was 20-5 after one period of play but more than the score this team looked like they wanted no part of this game added on to the end of the district schedule only for playoff placement. There wasn’t a stat category the Bulldogs could celebrate, shooting 15%, 0/6 on triples, and 5 turnovers in easily their worst quarter of the entire season. Rubinstein provided some life to the team at the onset of the second period, scoring off another Steve Levine assist and then Senior Sammy Weyser leaped for a huge offensive rebound. Weyser fired a helper to Rubinstein, who pranced to the basket with a side-step finish to cut the margin to 24-9. Sadly, though, it was just a brief moment of energy, as the Mustangs reeled off another 6 straight points to lead 30-9. David Steinbrecher’s first triple was a sight for sore eyes amongst a group who looked like they had no legs in the first half. The Bulldogs escaped for halftime trailing 34-14 on the 1/11 three point shooting and 9 turnovers. 5 second chance points also contributed to the 20 point hole they had dug for themselves.
The score wasn’t necessarily the issue as much as how Yavneh was playing. McKinney Christian, after all, can give up points by the dozens as they proved this year in a pair of earlier meetings. As it was, though, a 22 point deficit moments into the third quarter was a mountain that would be extremely difficult to climb. In a game that at the end of the day only determined which city each team would travel to for the opening round of the playoffs, the fight that the Bulldogs would show was nothing short of legendary in the second half. Steinbrecher started the rally with another three ball and after a dive to the floor by Rubinstein, he shoveled a pass to Daniel Chernikov to trim the lead to 36-19. Chernikov would follow that basket up with a steal at half court for a man-sized finish all the way to the basket. A third straight finish from DC21 came courtesy of Jonathan Ochstein’s nifty pass in the lane and finally Yavneh was within 15 points at 38-23. At long last the jumpers seemed to be rising off of rejuvenated legs as Steinbrecher drilled another missile from the deep corner and Griffin Levine buried a pull-up jumper to encourage supporters with just a 41-28 deficit to still make up and almost 11 minutes still to do it. Griffin Levine then rifled a pass across the United States for yet another Steinbrecher corner three ball at ended the third period with a simple 41-31 score to make up. McKinney was caving in with the 17-5 Yavneh finish to the third period and got a key basket to restore a 12 point advantage to start the final stanza. Zach Epstein quickly erased that +1 with a timely three pointer and off the ensuing possession Steinbrecher made the play that for al the world told you the Bulldogs were coming all the way back. Steinbrecher picked off a ball near half-court and torpedoed his way right to the basket for an AND ONE finish, running over a McKinney player on the way as if he was a weak defensive lineman trying to make a goal-line stand. 43-37 was just 6 points away now and Steve Levine’s jumper after a Mustang free throw chopped that lead to 5 small points moments later with still 5:30 to go. McKinney was starting to score again, which the Yavneh defense had not allowed them to do during their third and fourth period run of now 25-8. Foul issues for the Bulldogs were the biggest problem and ultimately the downfall in this contest. As Yavneh threw the kitchen sink at the Mustangs, it was their ability to get to the free throw line for easy points that held down the fort by the slimmest of margins. Trailing 47-39, Rubinstein set up Ochstein for a nice reverse layup finish to make the score 47-41 with 2:48 to play. Yet another free throw for the opposition punched the lead back to 7 points but Steinbrecher came up huge once again in connecting on a straight-away three pointer to chip even closer at 48-44 with 1:53 left. If not for a parade to the charity stripe, McKinney would not have generated enough points to close this game out. They shot 25 free throws to just 5 attempts for the Bulldogs and 2 of those 5 were late missed 1-and-1 opportunities in the final 31 seconds that may have altered the complexion of the final moments. As it was, trailing 49-44 with time ticking away, Griffin Levine assisted Zach Epstein for a miraculous wing triple to get Yavneh as close as they had been since 2-0 seconds into the game at 49-47 with 19.4 seconds to play. Errors by both teams in a strange finish to the game left points on the table for the Bulldogs to possibly force some tense moments for the Mustangs while a bone-headed over the back foul by McKinney actually gave the Red and Black one last chance with 6.8 seconds to score with the clock stopped. The 22 point hole was too much to overcome but just barely. The tenacity and grit that this team showed, however, may be exactly the lesson that pays major dividends when as the stakes in these games reach their pinnacle from here on out. David Steinbrecher led all scorers with 18 huge points, 5 of them triples. Noah Rubinstein and Daniel Chernikov added 8 points each with 13 combined rebounds as well. Zach Epstein’s pair of triples for 6 points and Griffin Levine’s 6 assists were also key in the comeback effort.
Yavneh (21-11) takes their #5 seed in District 3 to Lubbock, Texas for a rematch from 2 years ago in the 3A quarterfinals. This time the Bulldogs will have to travel in the opening round to their gym and knock off a team undefeated in their district and definitely considered one of the contenders to be playing for a trip to the State Final 4. This is not, however, the #5 seed walk in the park that Lubbock Christian was anticipating in Round 1. In the last 2 weeks this Yavneh team has grown up and is peaking at just the right time. Despite a disappointing first half against McKinney, the Bulldogs will have a day to rest before an anticipated Friday early morning tip-off with the Eagles of Lubbock Christian. With encouraging outings by all of the Big 6 at some point in the last 2 weeks, will they finally all put it together at the same time to achieve a legacy win for this team? Will the guard scoring of Steve Levine and David Steinbrecher produce enough points in a hostile environment? Can the trio of Ochstein, Chernikov, and Rubinstein control the paint against a big but vulnerable Lubbock Christian front line like Schor and Guttman did in the last meeting? Can Griffin Levine engineer the game calmly amidst adversity and chaos? Will the bench players step up with more big moments when needed the most? Can this Yavneh team bring its season back to the Metroplex for a local 2nd round game????
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its twelfth season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
TL-BW-SP-BR