Tartans Last Second Shot Falls Short in 66-64 Setback to Washington U.

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team hosted Washington University Sunday afternoon on the hardwood of Skibo Gymnasium and dropped a 66-64 University Athletic Association (UAA) contest.  The loss moves the Tartans UAA record to 1-2 and overall mark to 6-8 while the Bears remain unbeaten in UAA play at 3-0 and improve to 11-3 overall.

Halfway through the first half, the visitor's grabbed a 16-9 lead, but eight unanswered points by the Tartans gave the home team its first lead of the game, 17-16, with 7:41 remaining in the first half.  Over the rest of the first twenty minutes of action, the lead changed hands  seven more times with the last coming with four seconds left in the half when the Bears Tim Cooney followed up a missed three-pointer with a lay-up to put Washington up 30-29 at the break.

The Tartans opened the second half on a 6-2 run over the first three minutes of play to take their largest lead of the game at 35-32 The Bears responded out of a timeout with six straight points, and regained the lead at 38-35, one they never lost.

Washington, grabbed it largest lead of the game, 65-54, with 3:55 remaining in the contest, but the Tartans did not go down without a fight.  The remainder of the game, Carnegie Mellon outscored the Bears 10-1.  Sophomore Rashaun Riley (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) cut the score to 66-64 on a jumper in the lane with 51 seconds left on the clock.  

With 17 seconds left in the game, Washington's Alan Aboona missed the front-end of a one-and-one and Tartan senior John Duhring (Round Hill, Va./St. Maria Goretti) hauled down the defensive rebound giving Carnegie Mellon one last opportunity.  Following a timeout by the Tartans, Riley took the inbounds pass and drove the lane, but his eight-foot floater at the buzzer fell short.

The Tartans had three players score in double figures with senior Joe Kromka (Monroeville, Pa./Gateway) leading the way with 16. Riley chipped in with 13 points while sophomore Asad Meghani (Dallas, Texas/The Greenhill School) ended the game with 10. Kromka also led the Tartans with eight rebounds.

Washington's Chris Klimek led all players with 17 points while Matt Palucki and Ben Hoener scored 14 and 10, respectively.  Klimek grabbed a game-high nine rebounds for the Bears.

Carnegie Mellon will return to action Friday, January 20 as they travel to Atlanta, Georgia to play the fourth-ranked Eagles of Emory University.  Tip is set for 8:00 p.m.