NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Yeshiva University women's basketball team suffered a hard-fought Skyline Conference loss to St. Joseph's College Brooklyn, 78-54, at the ARC Arena on Tuesday evening.

Yeshiva (2-17, 0-4 Skyline) was led by junior forward Michal Alge and freshman guard Laura Betesh, scoring 19 points apiece. Alge grabbed 12 rebounds to earn the double-double, forced five steals, and blocked two shots. Betesh picked up three steals.

The Maccabees got off to a fast start as a jump-shot by Alge put the home team up 4-2. After falling behind by four, Alge's layup capped off a 4-0 run by YU, to tie the game at eight. Both teams fought tooth and nail for the remainder of the quarter. With Yeshiva trailing by three, senior forward Tess Blaustein threw an outlet pass to classmate Tzipora Leiser, who was fouled with one second left. She hit a free throw to cut the Bears' (6-13, 5-8 Skyline) lead to 15-13 and that would be the score at the end of one.

After St. Joseph's dominated the 2^nd quarter to go up by 15 at the half, Yeshiva came flying out of the gate in the third, scoring the period's first ten points to pull within five, at 41-36. Betesh converted a layup to shrink SJCB's lead to 43-38 with 6:08 left to play in the quarter. That's as close as Yeshiva would get as the Bears steadily increased their lead throughout the remainder of the game and went on to earn the Skyline win.

For the evening, Blaustein added nine points with six rebounds, while Leiser scored three points. Senior forward Gavriela Colton grabbed five rebounds and produced two points, while sophomore guard Penny Rabin brought down three boards. Senior forward Simee Rosner scored two points with three rebounds, while junior guard Andrea Weiss and classmate Chavi Charlap each collected a rebound.

The Maccabees will be back in action on Thursday, for a Skyline Conference game at the College at Old Westbury, beginning at 8:00 p.m.