The Macs continued right where they left off on Sunday, defeating the St. Joseph’s Brooklyn Bears by a score of 87-63. Max Zakheim had another impressive night, leading the Macs to their 13th consecutive victory over the Bears.
The Macs rolled past the Bears for their second straight conference win, improving to 2-0 over Channukah. (Photo Credit: Akiva Poppers/MacsLive)
How it Happened:
The Macs won the opening tip, but Or Sundjyvsky promptly coughed up the ball, allowing the Bears to set Jonathan Reno up for a three on their first possession.
The game started out sloppily, with both teams going a combined 1-for-7 from the field, with Zevi Samet finally putting the Macs on the board three and a half minutes into the game.
After starting out slow, the Macs started to find their footing, jumping out to a 13-8 lead, forcing turnovers on three consecutive Bears’ possessions.
While the Bears cut the lead to one point on two different occasions, the Macs jumped out to a 43-33 lead at halftime. Zevi Samet and Max Zakheim led the Macs in the first half with 15 and 14 points, respectively.
The Macs came out of the half pretty sloppy, only scoring on one of their first five possessions, but managed to build on their lead as the Bears also struggled to hit their shots.
After about five minutes of sloppy ball, the Macs locked in once again, padding their lead to 19 points with 11:27 left to play.
With about 10 minutes left, Effy Freundlich and Or Sundjyvsky had back-to-back blocks, keeping the lead at 17 points.
The Macs secured a win with an 87-63 final, outscoring the Bears 44-30 in the second half.
A Chanukah Party for the Macs:
The Macs have won eight straight games on Chanukah, dating back to 2018-19. This includes an additional two victories this season alone, where the Macs beat Mount Saint Mary and St. Joseph’s by a combined score of 169-121. This comes off the heels of two tough losses on the road to Amherst and Manhattanville. On the postgame show, Max Zakheim said, “We started the year kind of slow, not playing our best basketball, just waiting until we could become our best. I thought that on Sunday vs. Mount Saint Mary, our offense finally got going- we started trusting each other a little more- and tonight we continued that. We have to continue that. When we play our game, everyone will get their buckets.”
Zakheim’s Big Night:
Max Zakheim had a big night, putting up 25 points and 4 assists. He did a great job driving the lane and drawing contact, as he drew 7 fouls tonight, shooting an impressive 11-for-13 from the free-throw line. When asked about the number of trips to the line postgame, he said, “Over the summer, I got in the gym. A big thing for me was my free throws, I worked with a shooting coach a little bit, and we got to the basics. My goal is to shoot 90% from the line this year, and it’s good to see that it’s paying off.” Zakheim currently sits at 87.7% (71-for-81) from the line this season.
For St. Joseph’s (2-9 Overall, 1-2 Skyline):
Max Butler led the Bears in scoring with 17 points, drilling 3 of his 4 shots from downtown.
The Bears’ big guns, Jonathan Reno and Evan Sirakis, were held to 10 points each, shooting a combined 7-22 from the field.
As a team, the Bears shot a disappointing 37.5% from the field (24-64), but hit 7 of their 18 shots from beyond the arc (39.5%).
For Yeshiva (8-5 Overall, 6-1 Skyline):
Or Sundjyvsky picked up his second consecutive double-double, scoring 15 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.
Gav Landau missed his 2nd game in a row due to illness.
Hillel Baynash and Ari Shklyar both scored their first points of the season by successfully making their solo shot attempts in the late stages of the game.
While only attempting 5 threes, converting 2 of them, Zevi Samet still finished with 18 points on the night.
Up Next:
The Macs head out on the road for the next two games, playing Skyline Conference rival St. Joseph’s-Long Island on Sunday at 1:00 PM at the Danzi Center in Patchogue, NY. They then make their way to Immaculata, PA, on Wednesday, December 20th, to take on Immaculata University.
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