Blame it on a lazy Sunday, or blame it on the cold weather, but the CCNY Men’s Basketball team was as ice cold as the weather outside of the Nat Holman Gymnasium in Harlem Sunday afternoon. The Beavers flopped for their first loss of the season, losing 75-65 against Yeshiva University.
“I was totally embarrassed with how we were playing; our intensity, our effort is not good,” said Beavers head coach Tom Green after the game.
CCNY looked nowhere near as sharp as they did in their opening night win against The College of New Jersey. The Beavers opened the game 0-for-7 from the court as Yeshiva took control of CCNY’s mistakes to open on a 14-6 run.
“We just had a total letdown early on,” Green said.
“They’re a very smart team. We’ll probably only see their style of play twice this year. They force you to shoot from the perimeter.”
CCNY was no match for the Maccabees matchup zone defense as CCNY finished the first half shooting just 20.6% from the court at halftime, 37.7% for the game overall.
“I told the guys at halftime I was very embarrassed with how we came out,” Green added.
Che McCoy, the hero of last Monday night’s game, scored just eight points on the night on a 3-for-14 afternoon for CCNY while Khalil Hamer led the Beavers with 24 points on the afternoon, going 10-for-15 from the court, including 4-for-8 from the free throw line.
However, where CCNY had just Hamer in double digits, the Maccabees had three players in double digits on the day as Yisroel Feld led the game with 19 points and both Benjy Ritholtz and Shlomo Weissberg both had 16.
The Beavers continued to stay ice cold throughout most of the second half as Yeshiva opened on a 6-2 run to open the second half, taking a 43-19 in the opening minutes of the second half.
But the Beavers would rally back in the final seven minutes after trailing by as much as 31, 68-37. The Beavers rally fell short, despite a pair of threes by Lareik Taylor and McCoy late in the second brought CCNY within 10 until the clock ran out on the rally and the game.
“This has got to be a tremendous learning experience. This is game number two. The season is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. I’ll be reminding these guys about this game for several games, “Green said.
