Box Score
NEW YORK, N.Y.— In front of a near capacity crowd at the Max Stern Athletic Center on Saturday, the Yeshiva men's basketball team closed out an era with a 60-57 win over Maritime College. The win was the final game in the career of head coach Dr. Jonathan Halpert who closed out a forty-two year stay with 416 wins.
The Maccabees end the 2013-14 season with a 7-18 overall record and a 5-13 mark in Skyline Conference play. Maritime, playing its final game of the 2013-14 season as well, close out the year with a 3-22 showing and 1-17 record in the Skyline.
Yeshiva was led by
Yisrael Feld with a game-high 28 points, to go along with four rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals.
Shlomo Weissberg added 12 points and seven rebounds, while
Benjy Ritholtz had 10 points, five rebounds, three assists, three blocked shots and two steals.
Maritime was led by Kevin Heine with 18 points. Fellow teammate T'Vaughn Gibson added 16 and five assists, while Sean Corley knocked in 14 points and had seven rebounds and eight assists.
The Maccabees held an overwhelming 42-27 advantage in rebounds and owned a 12-2 edge on second chance points. Yeshiva shot 37.7 percent (20-for-53) from the floor, while Maritime connected on 46.0 percent (23-for-50).
Maritime led most of the first half, and the Privateers were up as much as six in the opening stanza. But the Maccabees stayed within striking range, and down 27-21 with just under three minutes to go, Yeshiva closed out the half on a 9-2 run to take a 30-29 lead at the break. Feld, who scored 20 of his game-high 28 in the first half, scored all nine points during the run that put the Maccabees on top.
The Privateers retook the lead early in the second half by scoring the first four points of the stanza to lead 33-30. But Yeshiva took over from there, going on a 17-0 game changing spurt during a nearly 10 minute span that put the Maccabees ahead 47-33 with 10:28 to play.
But the game proved to be far from over. Down 52-39 with just under eight minutes to play, Maritime went on a 8-0 run to pull to within five points, and the Privateers were down 52-47 with 6:28 to play.
The Maccabees answered with a 6-0 run to pull away once again and led by 11 as they held a 58-47 lead with 3:30 to go. Yeshiva still held a comfortable nine point lead at 60-51 with just over a minute to play before Maritime connected on clutch three point field goals to narrow the gap to three, and the score was 60-57 with forty-five seconds remaining.
Yeshiva failed to connect on its final possession, giving the Privateers the ball with 10 seconds to go and a chance to tie. But the last second shot by Maritime came up short as Yeshiva secured the win.
Following the game, coach Halpert addressed the crowd thanking the fans for their support.
