NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Yeshiva University women's basketball team suffered a heartbreaking Skyline Conference loss to St. Joseph's College Brooklyn, 69-59, at Nat Holman Gymnasium on Thursday evening.

Yeshiva (2-10, 1-7 Skyline) had a seven-point lead after three quarters of play, but St. Joseph's College Brooklyn (5-5, 3-2 Skyline) outscored the home team, 29-12, in the final 10 minutes of play to earn the conference win.

Leading the way for the Maccabees was senior forward Michal Alge, who led all players with 17 rebounds, and scored just as many points, for her eighth double-double of the season. She also facilitated four assists, forced three steals, and blocked a shot. Junior guard Nicole Bick led the Maccabees in scoring with 18 points, while grabbing three rebounds and forcing two steals.

In the closing stages of the opening quarter, freshman guard Leah Shulman drained a 3-point field goal to cap off a 5-0 run by the Macs and pull the home team to within one, at 17-16. That would be the score at the end of one period of play.

Yeshiva's momentum carried over into the second stanza, as Alge nailed a jump shot to give YU its first lead of the game, at 18-17. The Bears would go on a run and jump out to a 23-18 advantage. The Maccabees would counter with a 7-2 run of their own, to tie the game, 25-25, with 2:46 remaining in the half. During that run, Alge laid the ball up and in, while being fouled. She hit the free throw to complete the traditional three-point play. Bick drained a jump shot and then cashed in on two free throws to cap off the run.

With 18 seconds remaining in the quarter, Alge grabbed an offensive rebound. Bick capitalized on Yeshiva's second chance with a layup to tie the game, 29-29, with nine ticks left on the clock. That would be the score at halftime.

In the third quarter, Yeshiva scored six unanswered points, capped off by a layup from Alge, to go up 41-35, with 3:33 remaining. In the closing seconds of the period, Bick nailed a jump shot to give Yeshiva its largest lead of the night, 47-40. The score would not change during the remaining three seconds of the quarter.

The Bears scored the first four points in the fourth. Alge was able to temporarily hold off the Bears' rally by draining two shots from the charity stripe, to extend YU's lead to 49-44. From that point on, St. Joseph's Brooklyn went on a 13-1 run, in a span of 3:35, to take a 57-50 lead with 3:58 remaining in regulation time. A pair of free throws by sophomore guard Laura Betesh narrowed the Bears' lead to 57-54, with 2:51 left to play, but that would be as close as the Maccabees would get. St. Joseph's Brooklyn steadily increased its lead for the remainder of the game, and went on to earn the Skyline win by a score of 69-59.

For the game, Betesh scored eight points, with four rebounds, one assist, and one steal. Freshman guard Adina Rosenberg scored six points and brought down one carom, while freshman forward Lindsay Brandwein added five boards, four points, an assist, a steal, and a block. Freshman forward Celia Cohen and Shulman each scored three points, with the latter bringing down a rebound and forcing a steal. Senior forward Chavi Charlap had one board.

The Maccabees will travel to Brooklyn, on Monday, for a non-conference game against Pratt Institute. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.