NEW YORK (January 2, 2025) -- Junior center
Joshua Bernstein posted career-highs of 20 points and 15 rebounds Thursday evening, powering the No. 10 Tufts University men's basketball team to a 82-74 road win at Yeshiva University in non-conference play from Max Stern Athletic Center in downtown New York.
Bernstein posted his new scoring career-high on 7-of-9 shooting Thursday, making all six of his free throw attempts as well. His 15 rebounds also broke his previous career-high of 13 boards against MIT back on November 21, 2023 last season. He also added two blocks defensively.
While Bernstein was going offensively down low, the Jumbos (11-2) were scorching hot from behind the three-point arc in the first half, nailing 10 trifectas in the opening 20 minutes. It was the first time Tufts has made double-digit threes in a half since nailing 11 in the opening half against Lasell University on February 7, 2019.
Tufts also shot it efficiently from behind the three-point arc, going 55.6 (10-of-18) on trifectas.
The Jumbos never trailed in the game, and used an 11-2 run late in the first half to take a 20-point lead after a three-pointer from sophomore
Jon Medley. Tufts would end up going into the halftime break with a 16-point edge at 52-36.
After the intermission, the hosts put together a fierce comeback as Yeshiva opened the second half on a 14-2 run to make it a four-point game at 54-50 with 13:20 to go in regulation.
After a timeout, Tufts would respond with six straight points to make it a 10-point lead and led by double-digits most of the last 10 minutes of the contest to get back into the win column.
In addition to Bernstein, junior
James Morakis continued to fill it up offensively as he tallied 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting as he made four of his five triples. Sophomore
Dylan Reilly added 14 points on 4-of-10 shooting from deep, and
Scott Gyimesi added eight points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Senior
Trumann Gettings came off the bench to finish with six points and four rebounds in 14 minutes, and Medley also tallied eight points, two steals and two assists.
Sophomore
Liam Kennelly recorded a career-high eight assists, also recorded five points and three steals.
The Jumbos made 46.6 percent overall on the night from the floor, going 12-of-25 from three-point land (48.0 percent). Tufts is now 11-0 on the season when shooting over 42 percent as a team overall.
Zevi Samet led all scorers with 31 points, going 9-of-16 overall and 7-of-12 from deep. Max Zakheim added 15 points, while Roy Itcovochi also had 14 points in the loss. Yeshiva dropped to 4-6 overall on the season, but has played NCAA Division III's second-hardest schedule by percentage as past opponents have won 74.7 percent of their games. YU has also played six ranked teams in 10 games.
Tufts will now head south to Philadelphia to take on Widener University Saturday, January 4 at 2 p.m. in the final non-conference contest before the start of New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) play Friday, January 10 against Bowdoin College.
--JUMBOS--
