GAMEDAY PREVIEW: Mens Basketball vs. City College of New York Beavers- 12/27/18

By Daniel Lubofsky

The Yeshiva University Maccabees are one of the hottest teams in the SkyLine Conference having won seven consecutive games, and they’ll look to continue that momentum on Thursday night as they welcome The City College Of New York Beavers to the Max Stern Athletic Center.

In their last game against Moravian College, the Macs gave up their largest point total of the season with 94, but due to their second-highest scoring output of the season at 99, they were able to pull out the victory.

The key for YU continues to be their play on both ends of the court. They’re averaging 20.5 assists per game compared to just 12.9 a night for the opposition. It’s that unselfishness that has led to a field goal percentage of 52.2 percent, compared to just 42.3 percent from the field and 26.4 percent from 3-point land from the other team.

The trio of Ryan Turrell, Simchah Halpert and Gabriel Leifer continue to lead the charge for the 8-5 Macs. Turrell and Halpert have combined to average 39.5 points so far, with both finding themselves in position to join the elusive 50/40/90 shooting club. Leifer remains a force defensively, averaging 11.2 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 1.8 steals per game.

City College, meanwhile, is off to a tough 2018-19 season so far, having just a single win in eight games to put their record at 1-7 on the year. They’re being outscored by an average of 14.0 points a night while allowing opponents to shoot 4.8 percentage points better from the field.

The Beavers have four players averaging double-figures in scoring, led by Junior forward Ty-Ler Banks with 17.0 points to go along with 9.6 rebounds per night. Next up on the scoring list is Senior guard Mike White at 13.1 points per game shooting at a 40 percent clip from downtown.

The game is set to tip-off at 8:00 PM and is available for streaming on macslive.com or Facebook Live.