NEW YORK, NY – The women's basketball team hosted St. Joseph's Monday night at Baruch College, and fell 68-61 after holding an 8-point halftime lead. The “senior night” game honored two graduating seniors who combined for 31 points and 12 rebounds, but that wasn't enough to keep the lead they built in the first half. The Lady Macs stand at 2-17 (0-14) while St. Joseph's improves to 8-12 (6-8).

Senior Shir Fuchs led all scorers with 22 points before fouling out on a questionable offensive charging call. Yeshiva's other graduating senior, Avigail Varnai, was one point shy of a double-double, scoring 9 and pulling down 11 rebounds. She also had 5 assists. Lauren Kempin, a graduate student in her final year with the team, recorded a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Naomi Gofine came off the bench to add 10 for the Lady Macs.

The game started slow for Yeshiva, who found themselves down by 9 midway through the first half. Momentum changed at the 6:18 mark, and the Maccabees couldn't miss from the field. They took their first lead on a jumper from Kempin, and closed the half with a 10-2 run, including a three pointer from Kempin as time expired. Yeshiva's lead was 37-29 at the half.

Two free throws by Fuchs extended the lead to 10 in the opening minutes of the half, but the Eagles scored the next 8 to pull within 2 points. It was a 1-point game until Yeshiva went connected on back-to-back long range shots to build the lead back to 7, but they were unable to keep up the torrid scoring pace. The teams were tied at 56 with just over 5 minutes to go, but the Eagles scored 9 straight and eventually won 68-61.

For Shir's career at Yeshiva, she has scored 777 points in 51 games, for a 15.2 average.  She shot an impressive 36.3% from the field and 38.9% from long range.  Shir is a 73% free throw shooter who averaged over 35 minutes per game played.

Avigail has played in 53 games for her career, scoring 481 points (9.1 per game) and pulling down 320 rebounds (6 per game). She's dished out 203 career assists and stole 94 passes from her opponents. 

In four seasons, Kempin has played in 89 games and scored 681 points (7.7/g).  Shes blocked 248 shots and has led or been second in the Skyline conference in all her seasons.  Kempin was 5th overall in the NCAA in blocked shots in 2009-10.  On top of all that, she has pulled down 656 rebounds (7.4/g) and is a 69% free throw shooter.

The Lady Macs have 4 straight road games, before hosting the HVWAC play-in game on the 17th. Their next contest will be at Mount Saint Mary on Thursday at 8PM.