NEW YORK, NY - Maintaining perfection against Skyline Opponents, the Yeshiva men's basketball team defeated the United States Merchant Marine Academy, felling the Mariners by a score of 85-76 on Wednesday, Nov. 29.
Reigning Skyline Player of the Week
Zevi Samet led a quartet of shooters on the offensive side of the ball, putting up 24 points while
Or Sundjyvsky (25),
Dothan Bardichev (12) and
Max Zakheim (10) all scored in the double digits.
On top of their offensive production, both Samet and Sundjyvsky had stellar nights on defense, with Sundjyvsky captaining the effort with five steals and a block, while Samet swiped four steals of his own.
With the win, the Maccabees improve to 6-3 on the year, 4-0 in conference play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- While Yeshiva fell behind early, seeing two quick buckets give the Mariners a 5-0 lead through the first two minutes of play, the Macs rebounded soundly, with a deep triple from Bardichev getting YU on the board with 18:22 left in the period.
- Merchant Marine would proceed to grow their advantage over the following minutes, going up by as many as six points at 11-5. Despite this effort, the Macs remained hot on their tail, tying the game twice at 14-all and 26-all, the second time coming with 3:41 left in the half.
- While USMMA managed to cling to their advantage for nearly the entire first half, that all changed with 1:47 remaining, as a fastbreak layup from Gabriel Landau shoved the score to 31-29, Yeshiva's first lead of the contest. Two more layups from Samet and Sundjyvsky to close out the period only served to grow YU's margin, as the horn sounded with the Macs up 35-29.
- Cementing their status as a team that excels in the second half, Yeshiva spent the first six minutes of the period ballooning their lead out to 14, as long-range snipes from Bardichev and Samet gave YU an offensive firepower that the Mariners could not match.
- USMMA were far from done fighting, managing to draw within one at 54-53 with 9:44 remaining in regulation, yet Yeshiva deftly handled the threat, jumping back out to a double digit lead over the next seven minutes thanks to another triple from Samet and five straight points from Sundjyvsky.
- Leading by as many as 14 points by the time the clock shifted into counting down seconds as opposed to minutes, Yeshiva simply outlasted USMMA, taking down the Mariners, 85-76.
MAC LEADERS
- Points: Sundjyvsky (25), Samet (24), Bardichev (12), Zakheim (10)
- Assists: Sundjyvsky (4), Bardichev (4), Markovich (4)
- Rebounds: Sundjyvsky (8), Landau (4), Samet (2), Bardichev (2), Zakheim (2)
- Steals: Sundjyvsky (5), Samet (4), Freundlich (2)
- Blocks: Bardichev (2), Sundjyvsky (1), Markovich (1)
UP NEXT
Hitting the road for the beginning of a three game away stint, the Macs will travel to Amherst College on Sunday, Dec. 3 at 1:00 PM.
