Men’s Basketball Falls in Closing Seconds at Chicago

Men’s Basketball Falls in Closing Seconds at Chicago

(CHICAGO, Ill.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team was in University Athletic Association (UAA) action on Friday, February 21 at the University of Chicago. The Maroons downed the Tartans, 79-77, with a three-point bucket by Royce Muskeyvalley with 1.9 seconds remaining.  It was the second time this season that Muskeyvalley hit the winner against the Tartans in the closing seconds. The Tartans are now 11-12, 4-8 while the Maroons move to 14-9, 7-5

Junior Seth Cordts (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan) scored eight of the Tartans first 10 points as Carnegie Mellon built a 10-4 lead with 15:28 to play in the first half. The Tartans extended the lead to 18-6 over the next three minutes, as they opened the contest making 7-of-12 from the floor.

Carnegie Mellon took its largest lead of the half with 1:24 to play. With the shot clock running out, senior Asad Meghani (Dallas, Texas/The Greenhill School) connected on a 34-foot shot to make the score 41-26. The long ball marked his 54th straight game with a three-pointer. Carnegie Mellon then took a 42-28 lead into the locker room.

The Tartans shot 56.7% from the floor in the first half including a 7-of-14 effort from behind the arc. Cordts led all scorers with 13 first half points. The Maroons shot 42.9%.

Chicago started the second half scoring the first nine points to cut the deficit to 42-37. The Tartans were fast to push their lead back to double digits, as senior Christian Manoli (San Rafael, Calif./Terra Linda) scored on a fast break layup and Cordts hit his fourth triple of the game to make the score 49-39 with 17 minutes to play.

With the Tartans leading 55-43, Chicago's Wayne Simon scored eight straight points to cut the lead to 55-51 with 11:40 left in the contest. From there, the lead changed hands eight times with two ties before Muskeyvalley hit the winner. The Tartans had once last chance, but Meghani's half-court shot hit the backboard and glanced off the front of the rim.

The Tartans ended the game shooting 51% from the floor, as Chicago finished shooting 53%.  Carnegie Mellon held the edge on the glass hauling in 35 rebounds to the Maroons 25.

Cordts led the Tartans with a career-high 26 points while Manoli added 19 and Serbin tallied his third career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds.  

Derrick Davis recorded 22 points to lead Chicago. Simon finished with 20 and Muskeyvalley had 17.

Carnegie Mellon will head to St. Louis on Sunday, February 23 to the third-ranked Bears of Washington University. Tip is set for 12:00 p.m. CT.