Ovilla Christian 67-74

Ovilla Christian defeated Yavneh 74-67 Tuesday night. The loss drops the Bulldogs record to 15-5 (3-2).   

Yavneh is need of a bigger bus that has room for the defense to travel with them on road games. For the second time in district play and the third straight true road game, the Bulldogs allowed 60+ points and have not won a single one of them. On this night, 60% shooting for Ovilla and 16 freebies from the charity stripe did in a Yavneh team that once again just narrowly missed completing a heroic comeback. Eerily similar to the Mc Kinney Christian game, the Bulldogs offense did almost enough to overcome an atrocious defensive effort ending in a second district road defeat. Steve Levine was off and running early with a pair of quick steals that resulted in David Steinbrecher and Griffin Levine layups for a 4-0 start. What looked like a potential runaway was halted by an Ovilla 11-2 response to build a 5 point lead. They got uncontested looks at the basket from mere centimeters away, a common theme that would remain consistent throughout the rest of the game. Both offenses found success in the opening stanza. A Bulldog 11-6 end to the first period tied the game at 17-17. Steve Levine completed a nice look-away drive to the basket and drilled a corner three ball. The problem for Yavneh was defensively as Ovilla shot 7/11 from the field and the looks they got were wide open and contested in the lane. The Bulldogs look like they had finally righted the ship as Steve Levine surged his team into the lead with another three pointer to begin the second period. Jonathan Ochstein found him in the corner for a third straight triple dating back to the first quarter but through all that hot shooting Yavneh maintained just a 2 point edge due to a lack of defense at the other end. Not discriminating, the Bulldogs equally struggled in transition, half-court, zone, man, and trapping defenses in yielding points. A Steve Levine straight away banker gave the visitors their biggest lead at 25-21 but that was briskly erased with 2 Ovilla layups. The game seesawed to end the first half with an Ochstein feed to Zach Epstein for a baseline jumper but Ovilla held the 30-29 halftime lead. The Bulldogs allowed 56% shooting, including 10 field goals inside the painted area, while Steve Levine kept his team afloat with 15 first half points and 12 forced turnovers.

Yavneh has been no stranger to the close halftime score only to pull away in the second half. But in Mc Kinney that backfired and on this night much of the same. Ovilla stormed out of the second half gate with an 8-0 run before Steve Levine drove to the basket. Ochstein found Noah Rubinstein with a behind-the-back feed moments later. Rubinstein followed with a pair of nice drives to the basket resulting in a basket and three free throw attempts. The Bulldogs were scoring but made little to no headway on the 9 point lead as they crept no closer than 6 points in the third period after that initial run. Steinbrecher would drill a triple from a Griffin Levine pass but the lack of transition defense never allowed for a concentrated Bulldog run. The lead reached double digits in the waning moments of the third period at 52-41 before a 4-0 flurry by Yavneh capped by an Ochstein steal that culminated in a Steinbrecher finish ended the period at 52-45. The 24 third quarter points by Ovilla were devastating to the Yavneh cause and really set the tone for an uphill battle in the final 8 minutes. The teams traded baskets for most of the final period, which was exactly what Ovilla needed. Ochstein, who was super active all night long on the offensive glass, finished a nice post spin move but an 8-4 run for Ovilla opened back up to a 60-49 lead. Zach Epstein drove to the basket and Ochstein had a big tip follow but Ovilla would either score in transition or at the free throw line. The Bulldogs were in dire foul trouble and the double bonus did them no favors in trying desperately to come back from double digits down. A big stop with 3:08 to play led to a Griffin Levine setup of Steve Levine for the three ball that finally cut into the lead. 67-61 was the deficit as that shot went through the net and it looked like there may be a glimmer of hope yet. Epstein exploded for a pair of three pointers and Ovilla missed a free throw in between to suddenly dice the lead to a mere 71-67 with just over a minute remaining. Griffin Levine picked off a basketball down by just 4 points but a pair of ensuing transition misses and a foul going back the other way kicked the lead back to 6 points. The Bulldogs failed to score the rest of the game with a virtual lid on the basket and a valiant comeback effort essentially on one side of the court fell just a momentum basket or two short. In the loss, Steve Levine tallied a season-high 25 points to lead all scorers. Zach Epstein scored nearly all of his 14 points in the furious fourth period rally and David Steinbrecher added 11 points of his own. Jonathan Ochstein played the entire game and recorded 8 points, 11 huge rebounds, and 5 assists.

Yavneh (15-5) is now in an uncomfortable position as part of a pack of teams stuck in the middle of the District 3 field. The road issues, specifically on the defensive end, will need to be resolved. However, one ginormous home game awaits the Bulldogs on Thursday as defending State champions and #1 ranked Trinity Christian of Cedar Hill visit. Both teams have had this one circled since the schedules came out but now Yavneh will be fighting to stay above .500 in a district where every win has been challenged and means so much in the race for the TAPPS 3A playoffs.

The Kennel Report, now in its twelfth season, is written by…

Zack Pollack M&M

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