BRONX, N.Y.— The Yeshiva men's basketball team closed out the athletics department's 2014 calendar year of events with a win on Tuesday as the Maccabees beat Lehman College 66-62 at Lehman's Apex Arena.
The win was the sixth in a row for the Maccabees who are now 9-3 overall, while Lehman College falls to 5-5 this season.
Yeshiva was led by
Benjy Ritholtz with 24 points, five assists and four blocked shots, while
Shelby Rosenberg added 15 points and eight rebounds.
Michael Berg scored 13 points and had nine rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Lehman College was led by Jonathan Greenfield and Driton Hasangjekaj with 17 points each.
Yeshiva won the contest despite Lehman holding an overwhelming 28-7 advantage on points off turnovers, including 17-2 in the first half. The Maccabees committed a season-high 24 turnovers, while Lehman committed 15.
The game was close throughout and neither team led by more than 10 points. The only time the game saw a double-digit lead was when Yeshiva was ahead 24-14 with 6:58 to go in the first half.
The Maccabees led most of the way in the first stanza and led 28-25 at halftime.
The host Lightning though took the lead in the second half with just under four minutes gone by and led 34-32 with 16:02 to play.
The Lightning extended the lead to eight and led by that margin a few times. With as little as 8:03 to go Lehman had an eight point lead and the Lightning were up 48-40 at that point.
The Maccabees chipped away at the lead down the stretch and finally went back on top with seventy seconds to go on a Ritholtz jumper.
Ritholtz's jumper came in the midst of a game closing 8-0 run over the final 2:01 that turned a 62-58 Lehman lead into a 66-62 Maccabees win.
Ritholtz's 24 points gives him 988 for his career and he is now just 12 away from scoring 1,000.
Yeshiva men's basketball will now take five weeks off from competition and return to action in 2015 on Thursday January 22 for a home game against Skyline Conference foe the College of Mount Saint Vincent at 8 p.m.
