Novak Pours in Career-High 19 Points in 83-72 Defeat to NYU

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University women's basketball team ran into a tough minded New York University team, ranked eighth in the nation, on Sunday, January 18, as the Violets left Pittsburgh with an 83-72 win. The Tartans are now 9-4 overall and 1-2 in the University Athletic Association (UAA) while the Violets move to 14-0 and 3-0.

Junior Lindsay Poss (Poolesville, Md./Poolesville) led the Tartans early.  She connected on five of her first six shots, scoring all 11 of the team's points, as the Cardinal and Gray led 11-8 after five minutes of play.

Freshman Anna Novak (San Antonio, Texas/Alamo Heights), who scored a career-high 19 points, drained one of her four three-pointers with 10:26 to go in the first half to give the Tartans a 19-17 lead.

That lead was the last for the Tartans who saw the Violets go up eight, 31-23, before storming back to tie the game at 34-34 on a layup by sophomore Lisa Murphy (McLean, Va./McLean) with 3:58 left on the first-half clock.

The Violets answered immediately with a lay-up by Emily Rowe and finished the half on a 12-2 run to lead 46-36 at the break.

Novak opened the second half with a trey but that was as close as the Tartans would get as the Violets drove the lane and scored 22 points in the paint for the second half.

For the game, the Tartans shot just 35.3% from the floor, as they came into the game shooting 44.1%. Carnegie Mellon won the battle of the boards for the 12th game, hauling down 49 to the Violets' 27, including 17 offensive, accounting for 18 second-chance points.

Novak also tied a career-high with three blocks, as the Tartans blocked 11 Violet attempts.

Poss finished with 16 points and seven rebounds as Murphy scored in double-digits, with 11 points, for the 13th game this year, despite being held to two field goals on six attempts.

The Violets were led by Kaitlyn Read's 17 points and Riley Wurtz's 15 points off the bench. Megan Dawe also scored 15 points for NYU.

The Tartans will head out on the road next weekend as they travel to University of Rochester on Friday, January 23 for a 6:00 p.m. contest before flying to Atlanta, Georgia, to take on Emory University on Sunday, January 25 at 2:00 p.m.