Tartans Beaten on Last Second Shot at La Roche College

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) - The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team traveled to La Roche College on Wednesday, December 18 to play the Redhawks and dropped a 73-72 contest on a three-pointer by Lionel Perkins with 2.6 seconds left in the game.  The loss moves the Tartans record to 5-2 while the Redhawks improve to 6-3.

Carnegie Melon was held without a point over the first six minutes of play which allowed La Roche to jump out to a 7-0 lead.  With the home team leading 10-2, the Tartans scored nine straight points to take their first lead (11-10) of the contest with 9:37 to play in the half.  During the run, senior Rob Mohen (Stamford, Conn./Regis (NY)) scored five straight points while senior Christian Manoli (San Rafael, Calif./Terra Linda) capped it off with a fast break layup following a steal.

The two squads played back and forth basketball the rest of the half.  The largest lead for either team came on Tartan senior Asad Meghani's (Dallas, Texas/The Greenhill School) three-point basket with 2:36 to play in the half making the score 26-21.

La Roche then scored six straight to retake the lead at 27-26 before the Tartans answered with six straight of their own to close the half with a 32-27 lead.  During the last minute of play Meghani was perfect from the charity stripe, making all four of his shots.   

Early in the second half Carnegie Mellon used a 13-0 run over a four minute stretch to take a 51-34 lead, as six different Tartans scored over the stretch. The Tartans took the largest lead of the game (62-44) on a trey by senior Rashaun Riley (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek) with just under eight minutes to play, but the Redhawks did not go away as they scored nine straight to cut the lead to single digits at 62-53 with 4:53 to play.

Carnegie Mellon responded with seven straight of its own pushing the lead to 69-53 at the 3:45 mark, but the Redhawks once again answered.  La Roche scored the next 12 points to cut the lead to 69-65 with 55 seconds left in the contest.

The Tartans were able to convert just 3-of-8 from the charity stripe in the last 55 seconds allowing Perkins the winning trey with 2.6 seconds left.

Both teams shot 43% from the floor with the Tartans being led by Riley and Meghani with 12 points each while Manoli ended with 10 points. Carnegie Mellon was led on the boards by junior Seth Cordts' (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan) career-high 10 rebounds in the setback.

The Tartans will be back in action December 29 and 30 when they participate in the Land of Magic Classic in Daytona Beach, Florida.  Carnegie Mellon will play Salisbury on Sunday, December 29 at 2:00 p.m. before playing Skidmore Monday, December 30 at noon.