Five Towners lead Yeshiva University to NCAA tournament

The Yeshivas University men’s basketball team is returning to the NCAA Division III tournament as the No. 20 nationally ranked Maccabees stormed through the Skyline Conference playoffs with three consecutive wins punctuated by their 74-40 victory over No. 4 seeded Manhattanville on Sunday.

Y.U. plays No. 13 Johns Hopkins (23-3) in the first round on Friday at 1 p.m. at Stockton University in New Jersey.

Coached by Woodmere resident Elliot Steinmetz and led on the court by Lawrence native Gabriel Leifer, a graduate of Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys, also in Woodmere, along with superstar senior guard Ryan Turell, the Maccabees transformed a 25-16 halftime lead into a game-changing 32-16 advantage with 17:31 remaining in regulation.

Defense set the tone as Y.U. cut off the Valiants passes in the first 20 minutes and contesting nearly every shot. The score, usually the total number of points the Maccabees tally in a half was kept low by several Y.U. misfires.

A Manhattanville turnover ended up in the hands of as senior guard Eiten Halpert (14 points) picked a rolling, loose ball, tossed it to Leifer, who then eased up on a gimme shot and alley-ooped a pass to Turell (16 points) for a dunk and a 48-22 lead with 11 minutes left that electrified the capacity crowd in the Stern Athletic Center.  Junior guard Ofek Reef had 12 points and junior swingman Matan Zucker tallied 10 points in the game.

An expanded story will appear in the March 3 Herald.