It was quite the shot. A fadeaway three-pointer from Yeshiva University's Zevi Samet with 16 seconds left in the Skyline Conference Tournament Championship game would be the go-ahead basket over Farmingdale State.

It led the Maccabees to a conference title and a spot in the NCAA Division III Tournament.

"I came up the court and I was like, I practiced this move before, like just dribble, dribble, dribble, step back three, and I just took it," Samet said. 

It was a huge highlight for the Macs of Washington Heights during the 2024-2025 season. Co-captain Max Zakheim, from Bergen County, New Jersey, says early season out of conference games prepared them well for their Skyline Conference schedule.

"We could have played a lot of other schools and probably had a much better record, but we play those schools do battle test us, and we experience what NCAA tournament teams feel like, so when we got to our conference, we were able to win a lot of games, and we know what to expect," Zakheim said.

The Macs are coached by Elliot Steinmetz, a former Yeshiva player who has led the team to much success in 11 years at the helm. That includes three previous trips to the NCAA tournament and a historic 50-game unbeaten streak between November 2019 and December 2021. He called this season, up and down.

"We took a lot of losses early in some by a lot of points, but these guys are resilient, and they really work hard throughout, and we felt like we were growing through the course of the season, learning from our mistakes, and as the season progressed, we felt like we were getting better, and we peaked at the right time," said Steinmetz, who is also a practicing attorney from Nassau County. 

Samet was Conference Player of the Year, notching an individual honor as well. He says the team knows when it steps on the court that it is representing not only the university, where student are predominantly Jewish, but a people. 

"We recognize we are a different team, we are a Jewish team, we represent the Jewish people," said Samet, who grew up in Rockland County. 

Steinmetz agrees, and notes that the team does do things differently, including travel and scheduling of games and practices. 

"It is a part of who we are. Sometimes it's an advantage, and sometimes it's a disadvantage basketball-wise, but we don't think about it, it's just kind of our nature and what we roll with," he said.