Trinity Christian of Cedar Hill defeated Yavneh 68-46 Monday night. The loss drops the Bulldogs record to 20-10 (8-7).
Yavneh did not need a perfect game to hand Trinity Christian their first loss in TAPPS 3A competition Monday but they did need to do some of the little things that escaped them for much of the night. Ball security was once again an issue versus Trinity with 24 turnovers but many of the giveaways on this night were totally unforced. The game began with a 4-0 spurt from Trinity that teams try to avoid, allowing a layup and an ensuing turnover for a gimme basket. The mighty Tigers did seem to have trouble with Daniel Chernikov, seeing him for the first time this season. Chernikov scored on a nice seal at the basket courtesy of a Steve Levine inbounds for the Bulldogs’ first points. Both teams were extremely careless with the ball early but Trinity seemed to finish at the back side of their takeaways to take an early 8-2 advantage. Chernikov’s high post jumper and then basket finish off a great wrap-around pass from Jonathan Ochstein pulled Yavneh to within 8-6. The Bulldogs continued to turn the ball over while Trinity fired errant jump shots while the score remained unchanged for nearly 2 minutes of play. The home team led 12-9 after one quarter of play. The game was fairly even with 17 combined turnovers but Trinity’s trio of second chance baskets saw the Bulldogs continue to be plagued by the offensive rebound. The lead would grow to 5 points before a deep Steve Levine wing triple and David Steinbrecher three ball from the corner twice cut the lead to a single common basket. Both teams started to find their groove from downtown as Steinbrecher nailed two more triples while Trinity connected on three consecutive of their own. Griffin Levine connected on an acrobatic finish and a free throw line jumper but the lack of defensive stops kept Yavneh on the short side of a 5-6 point game for most of the second period. The dreaded second chance three pointer for Trinity to end the first half painfully saw the lead jump to its highest margin of 8 points at 33-25. That was just one of 7 offensive rebounds for Trinity which led to nearly half of the points. The teams shot horribly from the charity stripe with 6/13 converted freebies. Turnovers are always a big factor against Trinity but Yavneh only had 13 to their 12 at the half. The 5 combined last second points over both periods stood out as momentum for a team that definitely does not need much to feast off.
Trinity seemed determined to extend the lead at the onset of the second half and started to attack the basket more. Chernikov scored on a give-and-go with Ochstein but a 7-2 run in 105 seconds pushed the lead out to 40-27 as the turnovers mounted for the visitors. The Levines assisted on 4 points in a row as Steve fed Steinbrecher for an inbounds layup and Griffin hit Noah Rubinstein on the run to trim the deficit to 43-31. But Yavneh could not afford the ensuing 6-0 run for Trinity on a pair of triples that used the backboard and all parts of the rim back to back. The Bulldogs would respond with their own 6-0 stretch but that series of Rubinstein and Steve Levine baskets at the rim very well could have meant an even closer score. Zach Epstein’s corner triple got Yavneh back to within 8 points at 50-42 late in the third period but that would be as close as they would get. A 12-0 Trinity dagger run ended all hopes of the toughest of road wins to get. Turnovers fueled that costly segment of the game and simply could not be overcome. Steinbrecher went hard to the rack for a basket and Griffin Levine rolled in a floater but Trinity would get enough runout layups to seal a second 20+ point victory by scoring over 49 points and allowing less than 60, both magic numbers for the Bulldogs to hit this season in wins. David Steinbrecher led the way with 13 points and 3 first half triples. Daniel Chernikov (4/5 shooting) and Griffin Levine both added 8 points while Steve Levine and Noah Rubinstein scored 7 points apiece. Levine also dished 6 assists while Rubinstein pulled down 7 rebounds and blocked a pair of shots on one single possession.
Yavneh (20-10) heads into SENIOR NIGHT and the final game of the regular season with a chance to gain a share of 4th place in the district. A win would give the Bulldogs a shot at trading a first round playoff trip to Lubbock playing a 1-seed for a more manageable gallop over to Waco for a matchup with a 2 seed from District 2. Either way, the first round playoff game will be a rematch of a memorable game over the course of the last 2 seasons. A win Tuesday would also be a third successful district revenge game this season and no better way to enter the playoffs than beating the #2 team in the district.
The Kennel Report, now in its twelfth season, is written by…
Zack Pollack M&M
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