Tartans End Road Trip with an 87-68 Loss at #25 Brandeis

(WALTHAM, Mass.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team continued University Athletic Association (UAA) play in Sunday afternoon at 25th-ranked Brandeis University and dropped an 87-68 contest. Carnegie Mellon is now 9-9 overall and 2-5 in UAA play. Brandeis moves to 14-4 and 6-1.

Senior Colin McNeil (Ringoes, N.J./Hunterdon Central Regional) broke a 43-year old school record for assists in a single-season after handing out four on Sunday. The senior now has 139 on the season and topped George Harvey's mark of 138 set during the 1976-77 season. McNeil also has 414 career assists, ranking second in program history, and need 29 more to become the all-time leader.

Senior Zach Howarth (Freehold, N.J./St. John Vianney) ended the game with 16 points and now has 1,145 for his career, which ranks 14th on the school's all-time list. He needs 21 points to move into 13th.

Junior Daniel Weiss (Marlboro, N.J.) finished the game with 13 points while senior Trent Suddeth (Winter Park, Fla./Trinity Prep) recorded 10 points and hauled down a team-high nine rebounds. Weiss tied a career-best with six boards in the setback.

Carnegie Mellon ended the game shooting 39.1% from the floor, as Brandeis shot 52.4%, including 50.0% (12-24) from behind the arc. Nolan Hagerty led the Judges with 16 points. Eric D'Aguanno recorded 15 points, Chnadler Jones and Dylan Lien each had 14 and Collin Sawyer finished with 13. Jones led all players with 11 rebounds.

Brandeis started the game converting six of its first eight attempts, including a 3-for-4 effort from behind the arc, and led 11-5 three minutes into the contest. The Judges continued to hold the lead the rest of the half and led by as many as seven (22-15) with 11 minutes to play in the half. Carnegie Mellon then scored seven straight to knot the score at 22-22, but the home team answered with five straight and then led 38-35 at the break.

Howarth and Weiss combined for 24 of the Tartans 35 first half points while the Tartans shot 38.9% from the floor and converted 6-of-15 from behind the arc. Brandeis shot 51.6% for the half and made 6-of-13 from long range.

The second half started with Brandeis scoring the first 13 points and taking a 51-35 advantage at the 17-minute mark of the second frame. During the run, the Judges went 5-of-7 from the floor and converted 3-of-4 from behind the arc. Carnegie Mellon pulled within six points at 61-55 with 9:23 to play following a triple by junior Joey Krempa (Linden, N.J.). Over the next three minutes, Brandeis used a 10-2 run to push its lead back to double figures and never looked back.

The Tartans will return to play on Friday, February 7 with an 8:00 p.m. tip on the hardwood of Skibo Gymnasium against the Violets of New York University.