Serbin Scores Career-High 31 Points in Setback at NYU

(NEW YORK, N.Y.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team continued University Athletic Association (UAA) play Sunday, February 15 at New York University and dropped a 94-82 contest. Carnegie Mellon is now 12-10, 3-8 while NYU improves to 16-6, 7-4.

Carnegie Mellon jumped out to a 10-2 lead three minutes into the game, as sophomore Jack Serbin (New Albany, Ohio) scored eight points and converted all three of his shots, including two from behind the arc.  NYU used a 12-2 run to grab its first lead of the game, 19-16, four minutes later.

The Tartans answered scoring five straight to retake the lead, but NYU held the Tartans without a field goal over the next nine minutes which resulted in a 24-1 run for the home team.  NYU led 43-22, its largest lead of the contest, before the Tartans closed the half on a 16-5 scamper and trailed 48-38 at the break.

NYU shot 58.1% from the floor in the first half including a 7-of-10 effort from behind the arc while the Tartans shot 41.2% and made 6-of-14 from long range.  Serbin led the Tartans with 13 first half points.

Carnegie Mellon started the second half on a 10-3 run, as they held the Violets without a field goal over the first 6:39.  The run pulled the Tartans to within three (51-48), but that would be as close as they would get as NYU answered by scoring nine straight to push its lead back to double digits.

With NYU on top 90-69 with three minutes to play, the Tartans scored 11 straight with eight coming off the hands of Serbin, but NYU's Hakeem Harris' seventh triple of the contest in the closing minute of play sealed the victory.

Carnegie Mellon ended the game shooting 47.7% from the floor and converted 12-of-26 from behind the arc while NYU shot 49.2% and converted 11-of-18 from long range.

Serbin led all scorers with a career-high 31 points and was 7-of-11 from behind the arc.  The sophomore grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds to record his 12th double-double of the season.  Serbin also tabbed six blocks and a career-best five steals.  Senior Seth Cordts (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan) scored 14 points and recorded a career-high eight assists in the setback. Senior Kevin Stursberg (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla./Jacksonville Episcopal) was the only other Tartan in double figures as he finished with 10 points.

NYU was led by 28 points from Harris, who was also 7-of-11 from behind the arc.  Evan Kupferberg had 26 points and Costis Gontikas scored 19.

Carnegie Mellon continues UAA play Friday, February 20 when the University of Rochester travels to Pittsburgh for an 8:00 p.m. tip.