Yavneh defeated Mc Kinney Christian 56-41 Tuesday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 21-4 (2-0).
The TAPPS community is beginning to remember why it was such a good thing to have been Yavnehless for 14% of a century. The Bulldogs district dominance continued Tuesday with another stellar start that allowed cruise control to the finish one more time. The most unlikely of beginnings featured an Itai Guttman put-back followed by the most improbable of feats….a pair of made Yavneh free throws. Those two points from Sophomore David Steinbrecher were immediately followed by a triple courtesy of the same source. Guttman found Senior Captain Sam Kleinman cutting to the hoop and in a flash the score was 13-0. Kleinman, usually partial to the pass versus the shot, reversed that combo x2 as Guttman finished a pair of inside looks for a 17-0 advantage. This was the second straight game that Itai Guttman played a complete opening quarter with Yavneh streaking to the 18-3 lead. Mc Kinney Christian had to look no further than a 47-7% disadvantage in field goal shooting. The Bulldogs were not just beating Mc Kinney Christian; they were slicing and dicing them with the passing game. Kleinman found buddy Adam Schor on a tricky play in the lane and Junior Ori Guttman added his own seeing-eye assist to Senior David Rudomin for 22-3. Just like the previous game, when the visiting opponent thought they had consumed every weapon imaginable, Junior Noah Weiss calmly galloped onto the court. Weiss, known for his immediate statistical impact on games, instantly blocked the same shot he rebounded and moments later the Bulldogs had a nice three touchdown lead at 24-3. The defense was suffocating and Mc Kinney Christian desperately needed some three pointers to get back into the game. Conveniently, they got a pair of triples…shot right in their grill by Yavneh Senior Adam Steinbrecher. The Bulldogs kept running talent off the bench for which MCK had no response for. Sophomore Jonathan Ochstein typified the team’s defensive intensity with a tight-rope theft on the near sideline with the first half winding down. Mc Kinney Christian was able to close the half on a 7-0 run which included yet another buzzer beater by a Yavneh opponent to leave the score at 30-14. Life was good for the Bulldogs: they had twice their opponent’s field goal percentage, only 5 turnovers, and had actually made 5/6 free throws to that point.
Just as the first district game, however, the Bulldogs seemed dis-interested and lost focus at times in the second half. An offensively aggressive David Rudomin pushed the tempo and even when things ran stagnant the Yavneh bigs were just too much for MCK to handle. Itai Guttman and Adam Schor pumped the lead back up to 18 points on two post to post plays, resulting in a basket for each. Mc Kinney Christian was teetering on the brink of making this contest interesting when the demoralizing play of the night took place. Having watched Schor and Guttman put on offensive rebounding clinics all game long, Mc Kinney Christian was used to watching Yavneh score second chance points. On this occasion, however, both posts were well out of the paint when the Bulldogs Little Big Man swooped in from the phone booth to score the put-back that ended all hope. Senior Jason Epstein, the nation’s best rebounder foot for foot, once again reminded a Yavneh opponent that he must be accounted for at all times. From then on there would be no realistic threat and when Ochstein found Junior Grant Prengler for a wing missile triple the lead had swelled to 46-22. An active Steve Levine allowed valuable rest time for Kleinman down the stretch and it was relatively smooth sailing the rest of the way. When the lead got trimmed to 18 points, Ochstein answered with a tip follow. On another occasion, the lead was a mere 16 points until Levine buried a wing mid-range jumper. As the seconds wound down and the Bulldogs bench lost focus Mc Kinney Christian made a last-ditch push. Even with Reece Shaw’s three ball to leave the game at 54-41, it was way too little and a whole lot of too late. Levine immediately responded with an assist to Schor and that was that as the game’s scoring concluded at 56-41. Guttman led the way with an 11 point/16 rebound effort in which he owned the red paint on both ends of the court. Adam Schor also snuck out a double-double with 10 points/11 rebounds of his own. As crisply as the Bulldogs had played in the first half, they managed 16 second-half turnovers and missed 5 of their 6 free throw attempts in the final 16 minutes.
Yavneh (21-4) will not get away with those issues come Thursday. They begin a two-game stretch against the district’s biggest threats. First up will be a home contest against First Baptist Academy of Dallas. FBA is comprised of mostly players from an undefeated football team and have more combined athleticism than anyone the Bulldogs have seen this season. In a game that almost surely will determine the pecking order as district play heats up, it will be a priority to hold serve at home.
The Kennel Report, now in its tenth season, has been written by…
Zack Pollack M&M TL-BW-SP-BR