Tartans Send Seniors Off with a 72-63 Win Over Case Western Reserve

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team finished its season on Saturday with a 72-63 win over the visiting Spartans of Case Western Reserve University in University Athletic Association (UAA) action. The Tartans ended the season with an overall mark of 7-18 and 3-11 in the UAA while the Spartans finish 12-13, 6-8.

Carnegie Mellon shot 40.3% from the floor while holding Case Western Reserve to 32.4%. Sophomore Zach Howarth (Freehold, N.J./St. John Vianney) led a trio of Tartans in double figures with 18 points. Juniors Patrick Ehland (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) and Seth Henry (Fulton, Md./Reservoir) ended the day with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Senior Ryan Maha (West Mifflin, Pa.) scored nine points all coming by way of the long ball. Maha ends his career ranked fourth on all-time three-pointers made list with 183.

Ignas Masiulionis led the Spartans with 15 points. Michael Volkening scored 12 points and Monty Khela ended with 10. T.J. Duckett, the team's leading scorer, was held to three points, but grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds to help the Tartans control the boards, 54-40.

With 7:07 to play in the first half, Carnegie Mellon built a 30-11 lead following three triples. The first two came off the hands of Maha with the last from Howarth. The Tartans controlled the remainder of the half and took their largest lead of the frame with a minute left on a layup by Henry which made the score 40-19. The Spartans Antonio Ionadi connected on a jumper 30 seconds later to make the score 40-21 at the break.

Carnegie Mellon maintained in control and led 58-43 at the 11-minute mark of the second half. Case Western Reserve then held the Tartans with one field goal over a 10:31 span and managed to cut the deficit to four points at 63-59. A layup by Howarth with 42 seconds remaining closed a spurt of seven straight points score by Carnegie Mellon. Howarth's bucket gave the Tartans' a 70-59 advantage as they went on for the nine-point (72-63) victory.

Senior Thomas Cook (Gwynn Oak, Md./Carver Arts & Tech.), playing in his final collegiate game, scored five points and grabbed three rebounds.