NEWBURGH, N.Y. - The "second season" gets underway for the Yeshiva University men's basketball team Tuesday night, as head coach Dr. Jonathan Halpert's sixth-seeded Maccabees (11-14) take on one of the hottest teams in the Atlantic Region, third-seeded Mount Saint Mary College (18-7) -- winners in 11 of its last 12 contests -- Tuesday night at 8 p.m. in the Skyline Conference Championship's first-round at MSMC's Kaplan Center.
The winner of Tuesday's contest in Newburgh advances to Thursday's semifinal round at second-seeded Purchase, with the championship round of the six-team tournament being held Saturday at the highest-remaining seed. Tuesday's other first-round contest features fifth-seeded The Sage Colleges traveling to fourth-seeded Farmingdale State College, with the winner advancing to Thursday's semifinal action against top-seeded The College at Old Westbury.
YU enters the contest as winners in three of its last four contests to clinch its first tournament berth since 2010, including a 76-68 triumph to round out regular-season action Saturday night (Feb. 16) at Maritime College. The Macs hit 29 of their 41 field-goal attempts (.707), notching the sixth-highest single-game percentage mark in all of Division III in 2012-13 in the process.
Yeshiva's upperclass-laden starters have accounted for over 83 percent of the team's scoring this year, and has helped the squad to boast the nation's second-ranked 3-point field goal percentage (142-for-333; .426). Additionally, the team's motion-based offense has assisted on nearly two-thirds (383 of 581; .659) of its made field goals on the season.
Two of the Macs' senior tri-captains,
Dovie Hoffman (Tarzana, Calif.) and
Gil Bash (Tel Aviv, Israel), eclipsed the 1,000 career points plateau this season. Hoffman (13.1 ppg, 5.4 rpg, Skyline-best .471 3FG pct.) enters the contest against the Knights with 1,183 points in his four-year stint at YU (good for 17th in program history), while Bash (team-high 15.2 ppg, Skyline-best and national top-20 5.76 apg) ranks No. 23 with his 1,079 total.
One player who has come on of late in the low post for Halpert's side is junior
Shlomo Weissberg (Skokie, Ill.; 10.4 ppg, 9.2 rpg), whose nine double-doubles on the season (seven in Skyline play) rank among the top-50 nationally.
On the outside, junior
Benjy Ritholtz (W. Hempstead, N.Y.; 13.5 ppg, 57 3FG) has buried .482 of his field goals, and .413 from beyond the arc. He has been nationally ranked throughout the season in 3-point field goals made and percentage.
Head coach Ryan Kadlubowski's Knights rank among the top-15 nationally in 3-point field goals made per game (222 3FG, 25 GP). Four players average in double-figure scoring, including Donte Howell (13.8 ppg, 4.38 apg), Joe Stabach (12.7 ppg, team-high 67 3FG), low-post presence Joe Henain (11.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 2.48 blocks/gm.) and Chris Pisciotta (10.0 ppg. 5.8 rpg). Mount Saint Mary is also among the top-50 nationally in scoring defense, allowing 62.3 points per contest.
MSMC swept YU in the teams' two meetings this season, scoring a 73-50 decision in New York on Dec. 3 before capturing a 69-51 triumph in Newburgh on Jan. 29. Stabach averaged 15 points per game in the two contests combined, and knocked down 10 of his 17 trifectas (.588). Henain (11.5 ppg, 7.0 rpg) shot .647 in the low post in the series, while Howell (10.5 ppg, 11 asst.) and Straub (10.0 ppg, 6-for-10 3FG) also averaged double figures in scoring.
YU shot 46 percent from the field (as did MSMC) in the series, with the Knights' 3-point display (27-for-50, .540) ultimately being the deciding factor. Ritholtz shot 11-for-18 (.611) en route to a 13 points per game average against "The Mount," while Hoffman averaged 12.5. Bash (9.5 ppg, 4.0 apg) and Weissberg (8.0 ppg) each averaged 5.0 rebounds per contest for the Macs.
