NEW YORK - Yeshiva University’s 2020 Men’s Basketball Team made history. The 16 players won 29 games in a row.

“It feels unbelievable to do something like that,” senior Forward Daniel Katz told NY1 News.

It took hard work and teamwork with an unselfish offense.

“It sort of exceeded expectations,” said senior Guard Simcha Halpert.
 
It's a huge accomplishment for any school, even more so for the students at Yeshiva, an Orthodox Jewish institution whose teams must balance athletics with religious obligations.

The expectations and planning began four years ago when co-captains Halpert and Katz were freshmen.
 
“It was guys who were committed to setting goals that were higher than anybody has ever really dreamed of there and they bought into that goal,” explained Head Coach Elliot Steinmetz, "And they’ve been executing really since day one.”
 
Two years ago, the Maccabees, as they’re called, made it to the NCAA Division 3 Tournament for the first time in school history. They lost in the opening round, but qualified for the tournament again this year.  For the first time they won a game, defeating Worcester Polytechnic Institute 102-78.  The game was played in a nearly empty gym in Baltimore.  A student at Yeshiva tested positive for the Coronavirus and the NCAA banned fans for safety.
 
"It kind of didn’t feel real,” said Halpert. “We were making jokes all weekend together in quarantine.”
 
They say they kept it light and focused on their next game against Penn State Harrisburg.  Five players scored in the double digits and Yeshiva won 102-83, advancing to the Sweet 16.

The Macabees had dreams of winning it all. Then, traveling to Virginia last Thursday for their next game, they got the news.

"On the bus we started seeing chatter and eventually we heard our tournament shut down,” Halpert said. “At first it was kind of surreal, didn’t really sink in and as soon as we got off the bus it kind of hit us. All our hard work thrown out the window.”

The NCAA cancelled the tournament because of the coronavirus and with it, the dreams of these seniors.
 
“Having it come to an end, especially as a senior, it’s just a tough pill to swallow,” said Katz. "Looking back on it every day since it happened, it's tough.”

“It’s a different kind of feeling,” said Steinmetz. "There’s no sting of defeat. There’s no glory of victory. It’s kind of like this empty blank screen. It’s almost like the end of Sopranos.”

But this isn’t fiction. The school has closed. Classes have moved online and for seniors, their college experience is ending prematurely.
 
“We talk about perspective around the program,” explained Steinmetz. "Life is bigger than basketball. Right now there are people out of work, out of the classroom and trying to figure out what’s going to be next."

What nobody can take from the Maccabees though, is a dream season, even with the unexpected ending.