Box Score NEW YORK - The Yeshiva University men's basketball team continued its hot shooting Thursday night at Max Stern Athletic Center, but it was visiting College at Old Westbury's .677 display (21-for-31) from the field in the second half, including a 10-for-12 mark from 3-point land, that lifted the Panthers to a come-from-behind, 89-81 triumph over the host Maccabees in a Skyline Conference contest pitting the league's top-two teams in the standings.
YU (4-6, 4-3 Skyline), the nation's top-shooting 3-point team, knocked down 11 of its 20 attempts (.550) from beyond the arc, including a 6-for-10 effort from junior guard
Benjy Ritholtz (W. Hempstead, N.Y.), who was 7-for-11 overall en route to 22 points. Meanwhile, senior
Gil Bash (Tel Aviv, Israel) led the Maccabees with 23 points (7-for-14 FG) and a team-best seven assists -- helping head coach Dr. Jonathan Halpert's side to assist on 21 of 25 made field goals. Senior point guard
David Schmelzer (Columbus, Ohio) was 3-for-4 from downtown en route to a nine-point, six-assist, two-block night.
Yeshiva used 14 straight points to take a 27-14 lead with 9:34 remaining after a layup by senior
Dovie Hoffman (Tarzana, Calif.), who sits 11 points shy of becoming the 25th player in program history to record 1,000 career points. Freshman
Yosef Rosenthal (W. Hempstead, N.Y.) scored all five of his points during the stretch. The lead never fell below seven for the rest of the half, en route to a 40-31 Maccabees lead at the break.
Old Westbury's seven-point stretch to start the second frame was answered by five straight from the hosts, before a later 8-1 run by the visitors gave them a 56-55 lead with 12:37 to play on one of Kerel Mitchell's (29 pts.) game-best seven trifectas. After a lay-in by junior big man
Yoni Eckmann (Wynnewood, Pa.) put Yeshiva back in front 60-58 with 10:47 to go, the Panthers ran off eight of the next nine points to take the lead for good. YU cut its deficit to one point on three occasions, the latest coming on a jumper in the paint by junior
Shlomo Weissberg (Skokie, Ill.; 10 pts., eight reb.) to bring the score to 71-70 with 6:08 left. Mitchell hit from long range on OW's next trip down the floor, and its lead never got below three thereafter. A five-point stretch in a 25-second span brought the Maccabees to within an 84-81 count with 50.8 remaining on Bash's trifecta, before a mid-range jumper with the shot clock winding down on Old Westbury's next possession put the game out of reach.
Yeshiva is back in action Tuesday (Dec. 18), when it travels to the Bronx for an 8 p.m., non-conference tilt at Lehman College.
