Tartans Drop 90-72 Contest at #21 Washington

(ST. LOUIS, Mo.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team faced Washington University, the 21st-ranked team in the nation, in St. Louis Friday, February 1.  The Tartans dropped a 90-72 decision to the Bears in University Athletic Association (UAA) play.  Carnegie Mellon is now 4-15, 1-7 as the Bears move to 15-4, 5-3.

Back-to-back three-pointers by junior Asad Meghani (Dallas, Texas/The Greenhill School) and senior Andre Moore (Bowie, Md./Archbishop Spalding) closed the Bears gap to 20-15 with 12:50 to play in the first half.  Carnegie Mellon kept the deficit to single digits until Washington's Matt Palucki hit a transition trey to put the Bear in front 30-19.

The Bears led by double digits the rest of the half as they took a 51-35 lead into the locker room.  Carnegie Mellon trailed the home team by one on the glass in the first half, 19-18, but Washington dominated the inside scoring, 30-8.  The Tartans shot 38% from the field to the Bears 63% after 20 minutes of action.

The first six minutes of the second half was even-matched basketball until, Washington drained back-to-back three-pointers to push its lead to 65-44.  Carnegie Mellon cut Washington's lead to 74-60 when junior Rashaun Riley (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) scored from behind the arc with 6:55 left in regulation.

Riley's trey concluded a 9-3 run for the Tartans and started a 12-4 run for the Bears, as the home team claimed an 86-64 lead and went on for the 90-72 victory.

Washington finished the contest shooting 53% from the field and connected on 9-of-21 from behind the arc.  Carnegie Mellon shot 39% from the floor while shooting 20% from behind the three-point line.  

Meghani led the Tartans with 18 points on 6-10 from the floor including connecting on 5-8 from behind the arc.  Moore was the only other Tartans to score in double figures as he finished with 15 points.  Junior Rob Mohen (Stamford, Conn./Regis (NY)) hauled in a career-high 10 rebounds while scoring eight points.

Chris Klimek led four Bears in double figures with a game-high 24 points.  Robert Burnett and Ben Hoener each had 13 points while Alan Aboona recorded 11 points.

Carnegie Mellon travels to the Windy City Sunday to play the University of Chicago.  Tip is set for 12:00 p.m. CT.