Yavneh defeated The June Shelton School of Dallas 74-63 in the third of three games in the First Baptist Cotton Bowl Classic Wednesday. The Semifinal win improves the Bulldogs season record to a faultless 17-0. The victory also closes out calendar 2017 at a ridiculous 31-2 stretching two basketball seasons for the program.
Yavneh survived a sluggish 9:30am start, found their groove offensively with a quartet of double-digit scorers, and dispatched a third straight quality opponent to dominate their half of the bracket at the First Baptist Tournament. The Bulldogs missed on their first six shot attempts but Micah Romaner forced a pair of early turnovers to keep a talented Shelton offense at bay early. While they could not get the field goals to go early, Yavneh still managed to build a lead from 6/6 free throw shooting and 6/7 defensive stops before Pierce Bell followed the sixth miss for a layup. Ofek Reef’s steal set up a Jonah Eber to Griffin Levine Sr streak to the hoop for a 12-2 beginning. With a mere two field goals, the Bulldogs already had a double-digit lead. Bell, who was invisible due to foul trouble etc. against Casady, severely outplayed the Pierce Bell from earlier games of this tournament in so many ways. He was active at both ends of the court and really set the tone for a pre-New Years Block Party that would spread with a loud rejection. The Bulldogs forced 12 turnovers and built an 18-5 advantage through one period of play. Romaner found Reef for a wing triple, the first long range hit for a team that really excelled in that area for the entire tournament. 21-5 really had Shelton searching for answers when all 67.72 inches of Tyler C Winton made Caedan Wood think he was a seven foot cheetah with a lefty swat from behind that caused structural damage to the First Baptist wall. If that wasn’t enough, the next 26 seconds saw an Ofek Reef dunk contest ensue. Back-to-back one hand throw-downs from Reef in transition with a steal in the middle of it all scored nothing but 10s from a capacity crowd that included parents, alumni, and scouts. Zach Bernstein fed Winton for an NBA-range triple for a 28-5 lead as the rout was on. Levine bottomed two consecutive corner three balls as well during a stretch where he scored 8 straight points but the defense started to waver towards the end of the first half. 40-20 was the halftime edge for Yavneh behind 18 forced turnovers and 8/10 free throws. The big issue as to why the lead was a mere 20 points was the amount of shots Shelton was getting. 10 offensive rebounds closed the shot differential gap which was normally a Bulldog staple in their favor.
This Yavneh team was not going to surrender a lead of this size with the weapons they possess but Shelton did an excellent job of producing offense in the second half. A 43-point explosion netted the worst defensive half for the Bulldogs all season long. Levine had a great lob pass to Reef early as a 6-0 start to the half seemed harmless enough. Bell continued to send back shots with two more big-time rejections. Turnovers, carelessness, and a complete lack of defensive rebounding yielded a 12-4 Shelton spurt that cut the lead to 50-32 late in the third quarter. Reef finished a key layup while Bell took a charge and banked in a big shot to secure a 56-34 margin heading to the final stanza. The lead actually would balloon to 27 points courtesy of an 11-2 run. Winton fed Bernstein in transition, Bell turned a Bernstein cross-court dart into a wing trifecta, and Jonah Eber absorbed a thunderous charge that led to mass hysteria among the excited crowd. The outcome of the game was over but this contest that started with brick after brick turned into a three point exhibition down the stretch. Winton and Shelton sharp-shooter JP Padgett combined for 7 triples in the final 6 minutes as the defense most definitely took time to rest. Seth Gerstenfeld scored the final basket for the Bulldogs on a short jumper and collected a trio of steals in the final period in a game that’s final score gave very little indication of the true gap between these teams. Pierce Bell and Ofek Reef both scored 18 points, which was game-high for either team. Reef added 11 rebounds, 6 steals, 4 assists, and 2 blocks for his 7th consecutive double-double. Bell also had 3 blocks to pace his solid game. Griffin Levine notched 16 more points while Tyler Winton scored 12 points to go along with 5 assists, giving him 37 points on 11/22 stellar three point shooting for the tournament. Levine and Reef, always a tandem to be reckoned with, each produced 62 points for the tournament. Also of note, Jonah Eber showed his versatility in this final game of 2017 with 4 each rebounds, assists, and steals.
Yavneh (17-0) is now done with the pre-TAPPS portion of their schedule. The 12 conference games followed by playoffs and hopefully the State Tournament will ultimately be what this team’s true legacy is but the success they have enjoyed these last two months gives extreme hope for what could be the most special of 2018 runs. Can this team continue to add contributing pieces to the Big Three who are both clearly spectacular and not nearly all there is to this increasingly dynamic squad? Can any team produce enough points to overcome an offense that never struggles for any length of time? Will this team control District 3, secure the home playoff game, and get back to STATE? And of course…will March 2 2018 be a date that lives in the annals of Yavneh lore from that date forward?
ONLY TIME WILL TELL!!!
The Kennel Report, now in its 14th season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M TL-BW-SP-BR