Late Steal by Chicago Lifts Maroons to a 66-64 Win over Carnegie Mellon

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team returned to the court on Friday night and dropped another heartbreaker with a 66-64 setback to the visiting Maroons of the University of Chicago in University Athletic Association (UAA) action. The Tartans move to 4-11 and 0-4 while the Maroons are now 7-8, 3-1.

Carnegie Mellon shot 29.4% from the floor in the opening half before shooting 46.4% in the second half to end the game at 37.1%, as Chicago shot 41.3% for the game. Sophomore Zach Howarth (Freehold, N.J./St. John Vianney) led the Tartans with a career-best 25 points, including going 7-of-7 from the line. Junior Seth Henry (Fulton, Md./Reservoir) recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Ryan Jacobsen led Chicago with 28 points on 12-of-15 shooting. The junior also grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds. Noah Karras added 11 for the Maroons.

A layup by sophomore Colin McNeil (Ringoes, N.J./Hunterdon Central Regional) at the 11:37 mark of the first half gave the Tartans a 13-11 lead, but over the next four minutes Chicago scored 11 unanswered and claimed a 22-13 advantage. The Maroons lead was cut to three at 29-26 with 55 seconds left in the half before the visitor's scored the last two buckets of the stanza and led 33-26 at the break.

Chicago pushed its lead back to nine points (41-32) at the 16:23 mark of the second half, but a 13-4 run gave the Tartans life and pulled the score to 46-45 with 11 minutes to play. A good foul shot by sophomore Trent Suddeth (Winter Park, Fla./Trinity Prep) five minutes later gave the Tartans their only lead of the half at 53-52. On the ensuing Chicago possession, Karras connected on one of his three long balls to put the Maroons back on top, a lead that was never lost.

With the Tartans trailing 64-57 with 2:02 to play, four straight points by Howarth pulled the Cardinal and Gray to within one bucket. Following a pair of made free throws by Chicago's Jake Fenlon, the score stood at 66-61. With 11 ticks left in the contest, Howarth completed the traditional three-point play to make the score 66-64. The front end of a one-one for the Maroons was missed with the rebound falling in the hands of Carnegie Mellon sophomore Cooper Williams (Meriden, N.H./Kimball Union Academy). Williams passed the ball ahead to Howarth, as the sophomore drove the lane for the attempting game-tying shot, Chicago's Jordan Baum stripped Howarth of the ball to seal the win.

Carnegie Mellon will entertain the third-ranked Bears of Washington University on Sunday, January 21. Tip is set for 12:00 p.m. at Skibo Gymnasium.