Team Effort Pushes Tartans Past Geneva

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team opened its 2014-15 home schedule with an 82-53 victory over the Golden Tornadoes of Geneva College Tuesday, November 18.  Led by sophomore Jack Serbin's (New Albany, Ohio) game-high 24 points, the Tartans improved to 2-0 while Geneva is now 0-2.

The Tartans took a 25-15 lead with 8:24 to play in the first half on a three-point bucket by senior Jasen Blakney (Raleigh, N.C./Enloe) only to see the Golden Tornadoes score eight straight to cut the Carnegie Mellon lead to 25-23.  The Tartans responded by closing the half on a 13-4 run to head into the break with a 38-27 advantage.  During the stretch five different Tartans scored and 10 of the Tartans 22 first half paint points came on the run.
    
The second half started with a pair of three-pointers by Geneva's Jimmy Leichliter sandwiched with a Tartan trey by junior Jason Sebak (New Kensington, Pa./Kiski Prep) to cut the home team's lead to single digits.  From there, Carnegie Mellon rattled off seven straight to push the lead back to double figures and never looked back.  Late in the second half Serbin connected on back-to-back long balls off assists by Sebak to seal the Cardinal and Gray victory.

For the second straight game, Carnegie Mellon dominated the glass hauling down 47 rebounds to Geneva's 21.  The Tartans ended the contest shooting 48.5% from the floor to the Golden Tornadoes 38.0%.  Serbin grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds to go with his 24 points to record his fifth career double-double and second on the young season.  Senior Seth Cordts (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan), the past weeks University Athletic Association Player of the Week, poured in 16 points while sophomore Joseph Cossins (Cincinatti, Ohio/Anderson) chipped in with a career-high 10 points.  Senior Kevin Stursberg (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla./Jacksonville Episcopal) had a career-high 10 rebounds in the win while sophomore Matt Hillman (Gaithersburg, Md./Sidwell Friends) matched his season-best with eight points and recorded a career-high three steals.

Geneva was led by 19 points from Ethan Adamcyzk and 14 points from Chaes Vaudrin.

Carnegie Mellon returns to action on Friday, November 21 against Franciscan University at 5:30 p.m. in the first day of the Geneva Coaches vs. Cancer Tip-off Tournament before playing Pitt Greensburg Saturday at 1:00 p.m.