PATCHOGUE, N.Y. – The Yeshiva University men's basketball team's historic start to the season continued Sunday with a convincing 96-76 victory over St. Joseph's College Long Island, at the Danzi Center, on Sunday afternoon. The Maccabees have now won nine consecutive games since dropping their season opener and advance to a perfect 5-0 record in conference play.

Yeshiva trailed by as many as nine in the opening half, but outscored St. Joseph's Long Island (3-3, 0-1 Skyline) 40-12 during the final 12:35 of the opening period to take a commanding lead for good.

"Always a tough place (Danzi Center) to play," Yeshiva University Head Coach Elliot Steinmetz said. "Happy to see our guys respond after a slow start."

Senior forward Gabriel Leifer had another big game for the Maccabees, scoring a team-high 24 points, dishing out a game-best nine assists, and bringing down six rebounds. Fourth-year guard Simcha Halpert added 19 points with four assists and three rebounds, while senior guard Bar Alluf tallied a season-best 17 points to go along with three boards and just as many assists. Freshman guard Ofek Reef had a solid game with 14 points and six rebounds.

As a team, YU shot 66.7% from the field, including 65.0% from 3-point range.

The Maccabees got off to a slow start, falling behind 19-10, just over seven minutes into the game. However, a 3-point field goal by Halpert sparked a run of nine straight points by the Maccabees, capped off by a fast break layup from sophomore guard Max Leibowitz that tied the game at 19 points apiece with 10:07 left in the opening half.

Later in the stanza, Leifer nailed a shot from beyond the arc that gave the Maccabees the lead for good, 27-23, with 5:55 remaining in the period. After the Golden Eagles sliced the deficit in half, Leifer buried another shot from downtown to extend the Macs' advantage to five.

Yeshiva finished the first half strong, by scoring 11 unanswered points during the final 1:56. Junior forward Caleb Milobsky began Yeshiva's run with a 3-point field goal. Reef finished the half with a fast break layup off a feed from Leifer with 10 seconds remaining, to give the Maccabees a 50-31 hold which would be the score at the intermission.

Alluf scored the first five points of the second period to put YU up by 24. The Golden Eagles rallied to pull to within 10, with 9:34 remaining in regulation, but Yeshiva was able to recover and built its commanding lead back up. YU scored 10 unanswered points in the late stages of the game to give the Blue and White its largest lead of the afternoon, at 94-69, with 1:36 remaining. The key plays during Yeshiva's late-game run were 3-point field goals courtesy of Halpert and Leibowitz. Yeshiva went on to earn the convincing Skyline victory, 96-76.

"Good solid conference win," Steinmetz said.

For the Maccabees, Milobsky and Leibowitz each scored eight points, with the former pulling down four rebounds and the latter forcing three steals. Junior guard Sammy Mandell and first-year forward Jasper Newman each scored two points. Senior forward Daniel Katz added three assists to go along with a 2-point field goal.

Three St. Joseph's players reached double-figures, including a game-high 30 points by senior Frank Basile, who scored his 1,000^th career point during the contest.

Yeshiva will take a week off before traveling to Connecticut for a non-conference showdown with Eastern Connecticut State, next Sunday. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.