Gators suffer first Skyline loss, dropping match-up at Yeshiva

Gators suffer first Skyline loss, dropping match-up at Yeshiva

New York, NYThe Sage Colleges' men's basketball team travelled to face Yeshiva University late on Saturday night in the team's final Skyline Conference contest this year. Sage brought a 14-game Skyline Conference win streak into the match-up, but fell 82-72 to the Maccabees. With the loss, Sage drops to 7-3 overall and 5-1 in the Skyline. Yeshiva improves to 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the league.

Sage, the defending league champions finished the 2014-2015 season riding a nine-game league win streak and had not lost a single Skyline Conference regular-season contest since falling to Farmingdale State on January 25, 2015 on the road, 66-64.

Yeshiva's balanced attack was paced by five different players that all had double-digit performances and combined for a red-hot 54.4% field goal percentage. The Maccabees hit 66.7% of their shots in the second half (16-24) after holding a 34-31 halftime lead.

Sage's senior guard Jorrdan McCray (Orlando, FL/Wekiva) tied his Gator career-high with 19 points in the contest. Gator co-captain, senior forward Melvin Ford (Voorhees, NJ/Eastern Regional) had a double-double on his 18 points with 12 rebounds. Ford who is Sage's all-time career rebounding leader now has 599 rebounds, while standing No. 5 in career scoring with 824 points.  He is currently No. 5 in career scoring, just two points shy of tying Kai Deans, who finished his career at Sage last year with 826 points.

Also connecting for double-digits for Sage was senior Andre Robinson (Fort Pierce, FL/Fort Pierce Westwood) as he had 13 points with two assists and a pair of steals. Junior forward Elva Shelton (St. Louis, MO/Soldan IS) had a personal-best night with his 10 points and seven rebounds, while adding one block for the Gators.

Sage is back in action on December 31 visiting MCLA for a non-conference road match-up with the Trailblazers at 1 p.m.