Basketball (illustrative)
Basketball (illustrative)iStock

The Yeshiva University basketball team’s historic 50-game winning streak has finally come to an end, NY1 reported.

The Yeshiva U team had not lost a basketball game since 2019. But on Thursday night, their unparalleled period of beating opponents on the court came to an end.

Thursday’s game ended with a loss, with Yeshiva U losing 73-59 to Illinois Wesleyan.

Their 50-game winning streak was the longest active winning streak in American college basketball.

The Yeshiva U team is the top ranked team in the NCAA’s Division 3.

The period of 50 straight wins has given the team national prominence and exposure, with ESPN highlighting the team’s success.

The school’s athletic center has been at capacity this season, at least in COVID terms, for every home game. The names of the stars — Ryan Turell, Gabe Liefer, Ofek Reef — have become known across New York Orthodox Jewish households and beyond.

It’s a surprising turn for Y.U., which has historically been famous for rabbinics, not athletics. The flagship institution of Modern Orthodox Judaism, Y.U. has roughly 2,000 undergraduates, split between a men’s-only college in Washington Heights and a women’s-only college in midtown. At the men’s campus, where the team plays, students study Talmud in the morning and their secular curriculum in the afternoon, with classes often stretching into the night.

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)