NEW YORK, NY – The men's basketball team nearly defeated St. Joseph's Sunday night, but couldn't overcome a 14 point second half deficit to get the win. The final score was 82-80. Yeshiva is now 10-12 (9-9) with 2 conference games remaining.

Martin Leibovich led the Yeshiva scorers with 18 points on 6-7 shooting from the field. He also pulled down 7 rebounds and had 3 assists. Jeremy Pressman recorded 15 points on 6-6 shooting, followed by Omer Haim and Dovie Hoffman with 13 points each. Haim led the team with 5 assists.

During the first 12 minutes of play, neither team held a lead of more than 4 points. Yeshiva took that 4-point lead with 11:58 showing after Leibovich hit a three pointer. However, a 7-0 run starting at the 8-minute mark by the Eagles gave them a 6 point lead that they pushed to 10 with under two minutes to play. The Macs scored the half's final basket with 1:26 to play to cut the halftime deficit to 38-30.

Despite starting the second half strong, the Macs found themselves down 14 with 13:04 to play in the game. They slowly chipped away at the lead and pulled to within 5 with seven minutes to play. But the Eagles pushed their lead back to 10 with 40 seconds left. Dovie Hoffman connected on an “and-one” layup and made the free throw to cut the lead to 7. After two free throws by the home team, Leibovich hit a 3 to bring the team to within 6. St. Joe's hit a free throw for a 7 point lead but the Macs hit another 3, this time by Aryeh Magilnick to pull within 4. After two successful free throws from SJC, Haim got in on the 3-point action, pulling his team to within 3 with 8 seconds remaining. Forced to foul, the Macs sent St. Joe's to the line and they made both, sealing the game. As time ran out, Chen Biron hit a three to bring the score to 82-80.

Yeshiva has three games this week, two of which will decide whether they can get into the Skyline Championships. The team has one non-conference game at Brooklyn Tuesday night (8PM), before traveling to Mount Saint Mary on Thursday at 8PM. If the Macs win that game, they will guarantee themselves a spot in the Skyline Championships. The final regular season game will be at home on Sunday at 2PM against NYU-Poly.

As of now, the playoff picture looks like this: Both Yeshiva and Mount Saint Mary are tied at 9-9 in conference play for the conference's final spot.

Yeshiva gets in if:
1. They beat MSM Thursday night or;
2. They lose to MSM AND MSM loses to Farmingdale AND Yeshiva beats NYU-Poly.

MSM gets in if:
1. They beat Yeshiva Thursday AND Yeshiva loses to NYU-Poly or;
2. They beat Yeshiva AND beat Farmingdale.