Tartans Upset #17 New York 70-68

(NEW YORK, N.Y.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team traveled to New York University Friday, January 27 and upset the No. 17 Violets 70-68 in University Athletic Association play. The win improves the Tartans record to 7-10, 2-4 while New York is now 14-2, 4-2.

New York jumped out to a 13-9 lead before the Tartans went on an 18-3 run over a seven minute span to make the score 27-16 with 6:30 to play in the first half.  

Carnegie Mellon took a 32-20 lead following a jumper by sophomore Rashaun Riley (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek). The Tartans defense in the first half held New York without a field goal for a stretch of 8:34, but then the Violets closed out the half on a 10-5 run to cut the deficit to 37-30 at the break.  

The Tartans claimed a 50-36 lead on a layup by sophomore Marshall Massengale (Mill Creek, Wash./Henry M. Jackson) at the 14:37 mark.  After the teams exchanged a pair of baskets, New York scored 10 straight points cutting the Tartans lead to 52-48 with nine minutes to play.

With the Tartans leading 61-57, Riley drained a clutch three-point basket to push the visitor's lead to 64-57 with 3:23 to play in the second half.  New York cut the lead to 64-62 at the 1:33 mark, senior Joe Kromka (Monroeville, Pa./Gateway) had an offensive  put back making it 66-62.  A pair of made foul shots by sophomore Christian Manoli (San Rafael, Calif./Terra Linda) gave the Tartans a 68-62 advantage with 38 seconds on the clock.

Two three-point baskets by New York's Kyle Stockmal with a foul shot by sophomore Asad Meghani (Dallas, Texas/The Greenhill School) for the Tartans made the 69-68 with 12 ticks left.  New York then missed a shot and fouled Manoli. He added a point at the line making it 70-68. After another missed jumper by NYU, Riley went to the charity stripe for the Tartans with 1.3 seconds to play.  Riley missed the first shot and his second was short as well. New York grabbed the rebound and the 85-foot shot as time expired hit the front of the rim and the Tartans held on for the 70-68 victory.

The Tartans shot 55% from the floor and now have won 15 straight regular season games when shooting better than 50% from the floor.  New York ended the game shooting 54% from the field.

Meghani led the Tartans with 16 points while Riley and senior John Duhring (Round Hill, Va./St. Maria Goretti) each had 15 in the win.

The Tartans will be back in action, January 29 as they play Brandeis University at 12:00 p.m. in Waltham, Mass.