Stern Hebrew High School of Philadelphia defeated Yavneh 67-59 Thursday evening in an opening round game of The Wilner Tournament. The loss drops the Bulldogs record to 13-11.
Like a virtual scene out of Snow White, Yavneh let a tiny Stern basketball team off the hook early and never quite made it all the way back. The upcoming blizzard soon to hit the Baltimore Metropolitan area was the least of the Bulldogs’ concerns as again the only thing separating a completed comeback was the absence of a fifth quarter. Yavneh seemed doomed from the beginning, jumping out to a 5-1 advantage only on a trio of extremely lucky bounces of the ball. With height mismatches at nearly every position including all the guard spots, the Bulldogs refused to pound the ball inside. Settling for jump shots that just would not fall and dealing with a speedy guard tandem on the reverse side, Stern executed a 17-4 run on 70% first period shooting. The execution got so bad towards the end of the first quarter that the Bulldogs had to resort to nearly their entire bench unit. Sophomore Kevin Sulski brought some much needed energy and Freshman sharpshooter Josh Lynn bottomed a three pointer but the progress did not show on the scoreboard. A 29-12 hole resembled that of recent Yavneh games, and even after the starting unit returned, the Stern lead grew to 20 points. Yavneh had chances to chip away towards the end of the first half but missed free throws and layups kept the lead at 35-16 after 16 minutes of play. Really with the exception of Sulski, the entire team barely looked like a good volleyball squad, fumbling more basketballs than the Minnesota Vikings coughed up footballs in the NFC Championship Game. It was as if there was a foreign substance on the ball, and 11 turnovers were the result. Stern shot 68% in the half, and it was going to take more than just a steady commitment to throw the ball inside to erase a 10-possession deficit. True to form, though, the Bulldogs were a different team in the second half. Suddenly, nearly every shot was at the rim and offensive rebounds befell Yavneh like their opponents had been blessed with all season. Sophomore Ben Romaner had an early Super Bowl party in the paint at times, compiling 8 points on four putbacks. Scoring twins Elan Kogutt and Jordan Prescott dusted off their jetlag and showed up to the party as well, and the lead was instantly down to 12 points. If not for excessive amounts of missed free throws and several transition opportunities not converted, the Bulldogs would have been right in the game. As it was, a 20 point lead had been trimmed to 8 points before Stern’s Jake Marcus responded with a dagger three ball. The lead grew to 13 before a 5-0 Yavneh run provided that too little too late feeling once again with 1:09 remaining. Once again Yavneh had arisen too late. Kogutt led all scorers with 22 points, Prescott added 15, and the Bulldogs punished Stern with 17 offensive rebounds. In outshooting Stern 62-36 in attempts, the opportunity to overcome adversity was there but not achieved.
Yavneh (13-11) will play Rambam Baltimore Friday morning in a must-win scenario to have any chance to make the tournament final Sunday morning. With two games remaining, the top 2 teams play for the championship. The Bulldogs must quickly cure their ills in order to salvage what is left of their season.
The Kennel Report, now in its sixth season, is written by…
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