2008 Woodie Awards
Ups and Downs for the Basketball Team
Recent Trip to Miami Wears on Macs
Akiva Weinerkur
Issue date: 2/15/05 Section: Sports
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While everyone else was on vacation in January, the Yeshiva basketball team was hard at work at a series of games and events in Miami, Florida. In previous years, the team had an extended period of inactivity, and would generally return from the break rusty and out of sync with one another. In addition to the two games scheduled, the team held a basketball clinic for local Jewish high school students.
In the first game of the trip, in a 85-72 win against Johnson & Wales, Roy Goldstein scored 26 points as the team shot 12-23 from 3-point range. The win extended the Macs winning streak to eight games, the longest of Coach Jonathan Halpert's 33-year tenure.
The Palm Beach Atlantic Tigers, however, posed a tougher threat for the Macs. The 17-3 Tigers are the only Division II team on the Macs schedule. Goldstein again tried to carry the team with 17 second-half points (27 overall), but the Tigers proved too tough, and held off Yeshiva 55-49. Despite watching their win streak end, the Macs could take some solace in knowing that, thanks to tough defense, they held Palm Beach to 33 points below their season average.
Fatigue was the operative word according to Coach Halpert in the Macs first game back in New York visiting the Mt. St. Mary Blue Knights. Coming off the long stay in Florida, the Macs came out sluggish against the Skyline conference powerhouse, and errant three point shooting (7-23) was too much to overcome against a team hoping to avenge an early season loss to the Macs.
Yeshiva constants in both losses, along with the four defeats to open the season, were turnovers (44 in the two games) and being dominated on the glass (they were outrebounded by a combined 25 boards).
Facing the Centenary Cyclones, a team on a 25 game losing streak dating back to last season should have been an easy way for the Macs to snap their mini losing streak. But it took overtime, along with a spectacular performance from Goldstein (41 points) and another big game from Harel Vatavu, to fend off Centenary 80-72, in a game marred by 55 collective turnovers.
In the first game of the trip, in a 85-72 win against Johnson & Wales, Roy Goldstein scored 26 points as the team shot 12-23 from 3-point range. The win extended the Macs winning streak to eight games, the longest of Coach Jonathan Halpert's 33-year tenure.
The Palm Beach Atlantic Tigers, however, posed a tougher threat for the Macs. The 17-3 Tigers are the only Division II team on the Macs schedule. Goldstein again tried to carry the team with 17 second-half points (27 overall), but the Tigers proved too tough, and held off Yeshiva 55-49. Despite watching their win streak end, the Macs could take some solace in knowing that, thanks to tough defense, they held Palm Beach to 33 points below their season average.
Fatigue was the operative word according to Coach Halpert in the Macs first game back in New York visiting the Mt. St. Mary Blue Knights. Coming off the long stay in Florida, the Macs came out sluggish against the Skyline conference powerhouse, and errant three point shooting (7-23) was too much to overcome against a team hoping to avenge an early season loss to the Macs.
Yeshiva constants in both losses, along with the four defeats to open the season, were turnovers (44 in the two games) and being dominated on the glass (they were outrebounded by a combined 25 boards).
Facing the Centenary Cyclones, a team on a 25 game losing streak dating back to last season should have been an easy way for the Macs to snap their mini losing streak. But it took overtime, along with a spectacular performance from Goldstein (41 points) and another big game from Harel Vatavu, to fend off Centenary 80-72, in a game marred by 55 collective turnovers.