Yavneh defeated Red Oak’s Ovilla Christian 59-27 Thursday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 19-10 (10-3).
Had Superman creator Jerry Siegel envisioned his heroic figure sleep-walking from phone booths to the air and back to City Hall, he may have dreamt up Noah Weiss instead of Clark Kent. Yavneh shook off an 8 minute continuation of Tuesday’s lackluster basketball performance to obliterate Ovilla Christian and seize the district momentum that was there for the taking after First Baptist’s slip-up to Covenant. After ripping through Heritage Christian and Ovilla the first time by a combined 75 points, the Bulldogs struggled to dispatch Heritage on Tuesday and found themselves trailing 8-2 on this night right from the start. Steve Levine connected on a baseline jumper off a Noah Rubinstein pass to begin the game but Ovilla proceeded to tally 8 straight points. Another Levine shorter jumper stopped the bleeding but Yavneh was struggling on the road. Super Sub Senior Ori Guttman was able to score after testing and rebounding shots from all angles of the rim and then finished once more the first time on a great transition feed from Levine. That second Guttman bucket tied the score at 10-10 to end the first period of play. The game had all the makings of another inexplicable dog fight against an opponent that did not belong on the same planet as the Bulldogs just mere weeks ago in Dallas. And then…..the second quarter happened. Yavneh used a 24-3 period as part of a bigger 32-5 run that turned the game from a basketball contest to another three-ring circus. The Bulldogs grabbed their second lead of the game on a Noah Weiss tip-follow, an advantage they would never relinquish. He then stole a basketball which led to a nice Levine baseline drive. The lead stretched to 6 points on the ensuing Guttman steal to a David Steinbrecher exclamation point and Ovilla was forced to burn a third timeout already when Guttman threw a pinpoint alley-oop pass to Daniel Chernikov for an 18-10 lead with 5:31 still to play in the first half. Steinbrecher buried a triple from the corner for the first double-digit lead and Guttman’s duck under layup coupled with a Levine three pointer pushed the lead to 30-13. Sophomore Zach Epstein seemed to grow up by at least a year since the last contest as he finished on a crafty up-and-under power layup to surge Yavneh into a 34-13 halftime advantage. An 8-2 deficit had become a 21 point lead all in one 16 minute half of basketball…somehow. Shooting +10%, a +13 rebounding edge, only 4 turnovers committed, and a dozen turnovers forced all led to the Bulldogs taking complete control. Levine remarkably for the third straight game notched 6 first half assists, many of which went to Weiss. While the Senior post had a pretty good first half in a week of near perfection to remember, it was the third period that punctuated his all-star week.
Rubinstein kept it all in the first-name family as he targeted Weiss on a slip screen finish with the foul to begin the second half. Weiss would run the floor with Levine on the next offensive trip for another easy couple of points. The lead stretched to 40-17 on a third straight Weiss field goal to kick-start the half. Senior Zak Schultz spotted Rubinstein in transition moments later and basically if your name was Noah you were scoring in the third period. Schultz ended that streak in the third period’s final moments as he decided to keep the basketball on his steal and deposit it for the finish himself. Noah Weiss simply would not miss a shot this week. Only three field goal misses all week long (none on this night) led to three game-high scoring performances to carry his team. A single free throw miss in this game came courtesy of a heckling teammate, accomplishing something no defense could this week. 44-19 was the lead heading to the final stanza and it is fair to say the Bulldogs had finally woken up in its last regular season road game of 2014-15. Epstein fed Levine for his 12th and 13th points of the game early in the fourth quarter to cap a remarkable week in his own right. Levine also had a week of solid games, specifically in the all-important first halves. Rubinstein levitated in the air to finish a left-handed three point play down the stretch and it was Guttman who assisted on Weiss’s 8th field goal on as many attempts to cap the week. The 16 points were accompanied by 9 rebounds and a vocal 5 blocked shots. Steve Levine added the 13 points to go along with 8 total assists and Ori Guttman bounced back with an 8 point/6 rebound effort. Also of note, all 9 active players scored in the trouncing.
Yavneh (19-10) has now completed the road portion of its district schedule with three games to play and a one-game lead over First Baptist in the loss column for 2nd place. The first contest back at home Monday may be the trickiest as suddenly flammable Covenant (winners of 4 straight) looks to improve their now probable playoff positioning. The Bulldogs probably will not spend too much time thanking them for dispatching First Baptist until after the game is over. Will the dominance of Weiss and Levine continue in the final week of the regular season? Will they get help from a full compliment of players that have performed at times throughout the season but are searching for the consistency that will enable a playoff run for this group? Can the Red-and-Black close the deal and claim 2nd place in TAPPS 3A District 3?
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its eleventh season, has been written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
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