Yavneh defeated Mc Kinney Christian 52-32 Thursday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 27-4 (7-0).
This was the night Yavneh would finally be broken. A double trap game in the middle of nowhere with an already delayed schedule of events made worse by a host of extra-curricular festivities. An alumni game, an awards ceremony, and a circus all in one preceded a 10-5 Mc Kinney start. The Bulldogs looked like they were about to come unraveled with Senior David Rudomin trapped in the deep corner. All at once, however, Rudomin rifled a corner to opposite wing bullet pass to Senior Captain Sam Kleinman for the triple that would ignite a 26-5 run, keep Yavneh undefeated in District 4, and extend a season-high winning streak to 11 games. Ben Basema, a wide post that did not make the trip to Dallas in the first meeting, looked like a national player of the year candidate in the opening stanza. Scoring his team’s first 10 points, Basema was gaining inside position and punishing the Bulldog defense. An 8-3 Mc Kinney start was thwarted by an Ori Guttman runner off the bench but Basema finished again for 10-5. The crowd and the atmosphere were overwhelming the visitors until the Rudomin pass found Kleinman’s shooting hands. Kleinman followed that shot with a steal and transition find of Ori Guttman. 2 more steals and a late Adam Schor jump shot off an offensive rebound ended the first period with an 11-2 run in total and a 16-12 advantage. Still looking somewhat complacent yet happy to be back in the game, Yavneh desperately searched for a working combination off their bench. Almost like a pre-cursor of the torch that will be passed come season’s end, Kleinman dished an out of bounds assist to Sophomore Steve Levine for a line drive three point hit to start the second period. Even though Kleinman will stick around for another 2 months, the Steve Levine Show started early on this night and as always from the left hand side. Levine followed his shot with a nice find of Senior Adam Steinbrecher and then another deceptive twirling assist to Itai Guttman, who scored 4 in a row. Levine was not finished with his personally led 13-3 run to being the second period. He found Steinbrecher, who logged some essential post minutes in the first half, on a perfect wrap around. Looking like a left handed version of Kleinman, he then swiped a basketball and streaked down the length of the court for 29-15. Rudomin connected with classmate Jason Epstein for a short leaner with some English as the Bulldogs maintained a 31-15 at halftime. The 15-3 second period was a product of completely shutting down Basema, who still had just the first 10 points. The balance was due to the electric play of Steve Levine, who had 5 points, 3 assists, 2 steals, not a single turnover, and of course a pair of fouls.
Kleinman burst out of the locker room with a quick pair of rebounds, a finish from a nice Itai Guttman pass, and a steal. With the score sitting at 33-18, the game sort of froze for about 3 minutes of game time. Sure there was the small issue of Rudomin getting hit in the head and being awarded a jump ball turnover; and the fact that the referees seemed to feel his pain and lose vision for a few moments. But overall it was just sloppy play, headlined by Bulldog turnovers on four straight possessions. Blake Gomaa finally broke the standoff with a wing triple to bring the game to a tenuous 33-21. The response, however, came once again from Levine. Jason Epstein swooped a pass into the corner for Levine to triptify and the lead was instantly restored to 15 points. It was a Jumbo kind of third period from there, starting with a pinpoint Noah Weiss pass that seemed to have wings as it rose into Itai Guttman’s hands for a bucket. Guttman returned the favor on the very next offensive trip as Weiss executed a great finish in traffic. A 6-0 post passing spectacular was concluded with Guttman cutting through the lane on more winning connection, this time from Adam Steinbrecher. The score had become 42-23 and the tension of the first quarter seemed as distant as Basema’s hot start and the Yavneh upset alert. To start the final period Weiss snagged an offensive rebound and navigated a tough angle finish for the first 20 point lead of the night. Junior Grant Prengler was still shooting from Tuesday night and deposited a corner distant two pointer to extend the lead moments later. Weiss, who looked as if Mc Kinney were in Mars during his first half appearance, capped a nearly flawless second half run with the most violent of charge takes. While it is sometimes hard to move Weiss with any speed on a normal basis, this throttling surely accelerated the process. It was also, however, lights out for Mc Kinney Christian and their Cinderella winning streak. For good measure, an Epstein steal and subsequent little man connection to David Steinbrecher led the coast home and lowered that magic number to 2 for at least a share of the district title. Itai Guttman led the way with 9 points and 6 rebounds on an efficient 4/6 shooting night. Lead guards Sam Kleinman and Steve Levine each had 8 points and combined for 8 assists/7 steals. The most impressive stat may well have been the combined 11/14 field goal shooting of posts Guttman, Schor, Weiss, and Steinbrecher. Also of note, Mc Kinney shooter Blake Gomaa continued the tradition of guards lighting it up against the Bulldogs in garbage time from long distance. He finished with 12 points, most of them very late.
Yavneh (27-4) will have one last district road test to tackle on Tuesday. First Baptist made a furious fourth quarter run in the first meeting and came up just a single basket shy of tying the game late. With the athleticism of their wings and spurt-ability of their knock-down shooter, First Baptist poses a major threat playing in a suffocating building that meshes well with their style. The week that could decide the outcome of TAPPS 3A-District 4 is now just a weekend away.
The Kennel Report, now in its tenth season, has been written by…
Zack Pollack
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