NEW YORK – The Yeshiva University men's basketball team opened Skyline play, and the home portion of its schedule, with a convincing victory over St. Joseph's University Brooklyn, 102-65, at Max Stern Athletic Center on Wednesday evening.

The Maccabees (2-2, 1-0 Skyline) led the game from wire-to-wire.

Yeshiva phenom Zevi Samet continues his historic rookie season by netting 40 points, the fourth most in a single game by a first-year player in school history. The Monsey native drained 11 triples out of 16 attempts from beyond the arc and grabbed four rebounds. Through four games in his collegiate career, Samet is averaging 29.5 points per game.

Fellow YU rookie Roy Itcovichi had another strong game, scoring 16 points, grabbing eight rebounds, and distributing four assists.

Senior Matan Zucker also made an impact with 10 points, six rebounds, and five assists.

Classmate Adi Markovich had an effective all-around game with five points, six assists, four boards, just as many steals, and two blocked shots.

The Maccabees shot 56.5% (39-for-69) from the field, including 45.0% (18-for-40) from 3-point range. Yeshiva's defense held St. Joseph's Brooklyn (1-1, 0-1 Skyline) to just 35.7% (20-for-56) shooting from the field and 22.7% (5-for-22) from beyond the arc.

Yeshiva had the heavy advantage in the rebounding department, 45-29.

The Maccabees came storming out of the gate as a pair of 3-point field goals by Samet highlighted 12 unanswered points by YU to start the game. The Bears chipped away with a 16-5 run, capped off by a jump shot from senior Joe Sheehan, to cut YU's advantage to 17-16 with 13:09 left to play in the half.

Yeshiva answered St. Joseph's comeback attempt by scoring the next seven points, concluding with a 3-point bucket by senior Gabriel Landau, to put YU back up by eight with 11:26 to go in the stanza.

The Maccabees steadily increased its lead throughout the next several minutes, as back-to-back triples from Samet inflated YU's hold to 43-24 with 3:48 left to go before the break. In the closing seconds of the period, with YU protecting a 13-point benefit, Samet connected on another shot from downtown to increase Yeshiva's lead to 52-36 with five seconds left and that would be the score after 20 minutes of play.

YU had an even better second half, outscoring the Bears, 50-29, to earn the convincing conference victory.

For Yeshiva, junior Oren Betesh added nine points and five assists. Rookie Daniel Margusov produced eight points and three boards, while freshman Michael Natkin scored six points off the bench. Newcomer Jacob Rodin scored five points and brought down a pair of caroms. Landau had five rebounds and three assists. Freshman Elie Ibgui generated three rebounds, two steals, and a helper. Senior Ryan Bokor grabbed a board and dished out an assist, while freshman Ari Shklyar grabbed a rebound of his own.

For St. Joseph's Brooklyn, freshman Jonathan Reno scored a team-high 28 points.

Yeshiva will return to Max Stern Athletic Center on Saturday night for a Skyline showdown against Farmingdale State College. Tipoff is scheduled for 8:30 p.m.