Yavneh defeated Romeo Preparatory School of Paris…Texas 88-36 Saturday night. The win improves the Bulldogs record to 10-1.
Yavneh clearly had a bit too much rest this weekend as they blasted through an athletic Romeo Prep squad Saturday evening. The Bulldogs never trailed in the game and instead of running with their opponents, simply ran over them. Adams Karnett and Schor were the entire offense early in building a quick 10-4 lead. A 5/6 Yavneh start from the field left Romeo Prep wondering what they had walked into on a frosty November Saturday night far from Paris, Texas or France. Sophomore Steve Levine, making his first career start, found David Rudomin streaking to the basket for a 14-7 lead. The Bulldogs played with confidence all night long and were specifically aggressive in a dominating first period. They attacked the basket, got to the free throw line, and actually turned that into free points. All the bounces were going the way of the home team as Adam Karnett connected on not one but two consecutive three point field goals that hit the rim, bounced up and around, and finally found a home in the basket. A late 9-2 run extended the lead to 26-12 after a quarter of play. Yavneh out-shot Romeo Prep 62%-26% and got 24 points from Karnett, Rudomin, and Schor. The second period started but things just got worse for a rattled Romeo Prep group. Sophomore Jonathan Ochstein dished a crafty wrap-around pass to Adam Steinbrecher for the first hoop and the lead had swelled to 16 points. Steinbrecher owned the early moments of the second quarter with that basket, an assist, and a monster rebound with Romeoites draped all over him. The lead grew to 20 points when Zak Schultz found a surging Ori Guttman rumbling through a lane that embodied the parting of The Red Sea. The usually hyper-playing Guttman then took a few deep breaths and delivered a great pass to Jason Epstein on the most patient possession of the year for a 35-12 edge. Not quite finished, Guttman absorbed some contact while torpedoing a deep corner triple to put the game out of hand. The first 30-point margin of the night came moments later on a David Steinbrecher jumper and the half ended with Steinbrecher shooting the 50th Bulldog point while peeling out backwards to the floor. The 50-19 halftime lead was an amazing display of aggressive play with only a pair of turnovers and 17 assists. Who knew that exporting the majority of your turnovers to Mexico could do such wonders on the basketball court.
Romeo Prep showed some life to begin the second half, connecting on a pair of deep three point goals to cut the lead to 52-25. The hole, however, was way too deep and Yavneh was simply not going to beat themselves on this night. A 12-4 response from the Bulldogs essentially ended all hope of a potential comeback by Romeo and made the game a laugher to the finish. The key play in that mini-run came on a posterizing Ochstein drive complete with a ball fake to the bench in mid-flight. Ochstein, Zak Schultz, and Junior Grant Prengler all had stellar second halves and gave Romeo no room to breathe in this game. Ochstein made some great passes to go along with his 6 points and grabbed a tough offensive rebound. Schultz recorded pairs of field goals, assists, rebounds and steals with one of the baskets a cutting reverse layup from Prengler’s pass. Prengler had three of those assists to go along with three rebounds in a nice second half effort. A 35 point lead after three periods caused some sloppy play down the stretch with 4 of the 7 Bulldog turnovers on the night. Still, the ball protection was super encouraging and goes to show that if this team can take care of the ball and hold their own on the boards they are virtually untouchable. David Steinbrecher tied a career-high in both points and rebounds with 13 points on 5/7 shooting to lead the Bulldogs. Ori Guttman, Adam Schor, and Adam Karnett each chipped in 12 points as well. In the ultimate team effort, every active player scored and rebounded, and all but one player also grabbed at least a steal and an assist. The three active first-year players, Ochstein, Levine, and Schultz, all had productive outings.
Yavneh (10-1) has now won 9 games in a row and is still undefeated in the State of Texas. Those streaks will be severely tested on Monday when they travel to yet another highly ranked Texas Private school. St Marks has never lost to the Bulldogs, although they were challenged like never before in last year’s match-up. Ranked #20 among Large Private Schools in Texas, St Marks could be in for much more than they bargained for come Monday night.
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!!!!!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its tenth season, has been written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
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