NEW YORK - The nationally ranked No. 24 Yeshiva men's basketball team earned a statement victory on Thursday evening by knocking off the fifth-ranked team in the nation, and previously unbeaten Saint Joseph (Conn.) by a score of 87-76 at Max Stern Athletic Center. It marks YU's first victory over a nationally ranked team in program history. The Maccabees advance to 21-3, while the Blue Jays' first loss of the season drops them to 22-1.
St. Joseph was the last unbeaten team in Division III men's basketball. Three women's teams remain unbeaten: Christopher Newport, Transylvania and Webster.
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Yeshiva shot 53.1% from the field, including 50.0% from beyond the arc. The Macs' defense held the Blue Jays to just 22.2% shooting from 3-point range but Saint Joseph did shoot 47.7% from the field overall. The Macs' defense only surrendered nine points during the final 9:41 of the contest.
"Great defensive effort tonight," Yeshiva University Head Coach Elliot Steinmetz said. "Team win. program win. Loved how we competed."
Yeshiva trailed by nine late in the first half but chipped away at the deficit and pulled to within five, at 45-40, after 20 minutes of play. The Maccabees took over the game in the second half, outscoring the Blue Jays by a score of 47-31 during the final 20 minutes of the contest to earn the monumental victory.
Leading the way for the Maccabees was senior Eitan Halpert who drained seven out of 10 3-point shot attempts and finished the game with 23 points. He also grabbed five rebounds and dished out a pair of assists. Classmate Ryan Turell netted 22 points, going 3-for-6 from deep, and distributed six assists. Graduate student Gabriel Leifer had a near double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds, while facilitating seven assists and blocking two shots. Junior Ofek Reef contributed with 12 points, on 5-for-7 shooting, and snatched five boards. Graduate student Jordan Armstrong had a game-high seven blocks, while grabbing three rebounds.
Late in the first half, Saint Joseph gained control of the matchup by scoring eight unanswered points, capped off by a 3-point field goal from senior Ryan O'Neill, to take a commanding 39-30 advantage with 3:05 to go. Halpert responded with a triple of his own to narrow YU's deficit to six.
With Yeshiva down by seven in the closing seconds of the half, Reef converted a layup with 14 ticks left on the clock to shrink YU's deficit to 45-40. That would be the score after 20 minutes of play.
Halpert got hot from deep as back-to-back triples propelled YU from a 47-42 hole to a 48-47 benefit less than two minutes into the second half. Junior Matan Zucker continued YU's momentum by grabbing an offensive rebound and providing the putback to extend the Blue and White's lead to three. Saint Joseph responded by going on a 7-2 run to retake the advantage at 54-52 with 15:27 left in regulation.
Later in the second half, a jump shot by senior Jaecee Martin extended the Blue Jays' lead to 62-57 with 12:57 left to play. At that point, Turell came through when his team needed him as he buried a shot from downtown to pull YU to within two. After each team scored two points, Turell drained another triple to propel the Maccabees to a 65-64 lead with 10:01 to go.
With the score 70-69 in favor of the home team, Armstrong took a feed from Turell and powered through for a layup, while being fouled. He added the shot from the charity stripe to complete the traditional three-point play to inflate YU's lead to 73-69 with 7:33 left.
With just over five minutes remaining, sophomore Oren Betesh buried a key 3-point basket to extend the Macs' advantage to eight, at 78-71. After Turell forced a steal on the next possession, he drew a foul and then drained both free throws to pad Yeshiva's benefit to 80-71 with 5:06 to go.
The Blue Jays could not make a run to get back into the game as Yeshiva built its lead up to 13 before winning the national showdown by a score of 87-76.
For the Maccabees, Zucker grabbed seven rebounds and netted four points.
For the Blue Jays, Martin had a solid game with 20 points, eight assists, six rebounds, and a steal. Senior Jordan Powell scored 14 points, brought down four boards, and blocked two shots.
Yeshiva will close out the regular season with a Skyline matchup against St. Joseph's College Brooklyn, at Max Stern Athletic Center, on Saturday evening. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. The Macs need both a win and a Farmingdale State College loss to SUNY Old Westbury to clinch the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Skyline Conference Championships.