Men’s Basketball Stumbles Against New York

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team entertained the Violets of New York University on Friday, February 5 and dropped a 70-67 decision in University Athletic Association (UAA) play. Carnegie Mellon is now 8-11 and 1-7 in UAA play while NYU leaves Pittsburgh with a mark of 16-3, 5-3.

Carnegie Mellon trailed 6-4 three minutes into the contest, but back-to-back three-pointers by senior Jason Sebak (New Kensington, Pa./Kiski Prep) and sophomore Ryan Maha (West Mifflin, Pa.) on the Tartans next two possessions gave the home team a 10-6 lead.  Carnegie Mellon held the lead the rest of the half and took a 43-31 advantage into the break.  The Tartans made 6-of-12 from behind the arc and shot 52.9% from the floor in the first half.

NYU started the second half on a 22-6 run over the first eight-plus minutes and took a 53-49 lead.  The Violets stretched their lead to 59-52, but the Tartans scored six of the next seven points to pull within a bucket.  That was as close as Carnegie Mellon came, as NYU's Patrick Burns hit a jumper and a long ball by Ross Udine sandwiched with a foul shot by Tartan junior Chris Shkil (Mentor, Ohio/Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin) made the score 65-59.

After shooting 50% (6-12) from behind the arc in the first half, Carnegie Mellon connected on 2-of-9 over the last 20 minutes of play. The Tartans shot 46.7% from the floor while NYU shot 47.3%.

Junior Jack Serbin (New Albany, Ohio) led a trio of Tartans in double figures with 14 points. Maha had 11 and freshman Patrick Ehland (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) scored 10 in the setback.  Sebak dished out six assists and Serbin led the Tartans with nine rebounds.

NYU also had three players score in double figures with Udine leading all scorers with 21 points.  Evan Kupferberg had 13 with Burns chipping in with 12.  

The Tartans will next play host to Brandeis University on Sunday, February 2 at 12:00 p.m.