Box Score NEW YORK - Senior
Gil Bash (Tel Aviv, Israel) paced all players with 26 points and seven assists Thursday night at Max Stern Athletic Center, but the Yeshiva University men's basketball team's valiant comeback from down 12 points in the second half went for naught, as visiting St. Joseph's College of Long Island received a pair of free throws with 1:02 remaining from Keith Anderson and held on for a 73-72, Skyline Conference victory.
Bash (10-for-20 FG, 3-for-4 3FG), who now sits at 952 career points, paced a trio of Maccabees (8-10, 5-7 Skyline) in double-figure scoring, including classmate
Dovie Hoffman (Tarzana, Calif.), who poured in 19 on 9-for-14 shooting, and 12 points from junior
Benjy Ritholtz (W. Hempstead, N.Y.). Junior
Shlomo Weissberg (Skokie, Ill.) led all players with 12 rebounds on the night, helping YU to a 37-27 advantage on the glass, as well as scoring edges of 36-32 in the paint and 15-9 on second-chance points.
Anderson (8-for-8 FT) dropped in 20 points and dished out four assists for the Golden Eagles (6-14, 4-9 Skyline), while backcourt player Evan Mohammad (four assists, three steals) paced the visitors with 25 points on 9-for-16 shooting, including a scorching 6-for-7 mark from behind the 3-point arc.
The game featured seven ties and four lead changes, and after heading into the locker room at halftime up 42-38, St. Joseph's stretched its advantage to 61-49 on Mohammed's driving lay-in with 12:06 remaining. YU chipped away at the lead, and eventually tied the contest with 6:03 to go on Bash's trifecta from the top of the key. The Golden Eagles' Cody Lohsen (9 pts., 8 reb.) responded with a trifecta on his team's next possession, before Ritholtz answered from the right-hand side of the arc to knot the game back up (69-all) with 5:29 left.
Phil Calixte converted a bucket in the paint for St. Joseph's with 3:41 to go, before Bash took a pass from the post by junior
Yoni Eckmann (Wynnewood, Pa.) and knocked down a go-ahead 3-ball, to put the Maccabees up 72-71 with 2:58 left on the clock.
Anderson scored the next, and what wound up being the final, points of the contest with his pair from the charity stripe with 1:02 to go. Yeshiva turned the ball over on its subsequent possession, but Mohammed missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with under 23 seconds to go. After a SJC foul and Macs timeout, YU senior
David Schmelzer (Columbus, Ohio) saw his 17-footer from the left elbow rim out to the right-hand side. Ritholtz collected the rebound at the right elbow, but his off-balance attempt at the horn missed wide left.
Head coach Dr. Jonathan Halpert's Maccabees are back in Skyline Conference action Saturday night (Feb. 2), when they travel to conference-unbeaten Old Westbury (N.Y.) for an 8:30 p.m. tip-off at the Clark Athletic Center.
