Tartans Win Second Straight, Defeat UChicago 65-57

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team won its second straight University Athletic Association (UAA) game by defeating the University of Chicago on Sunday afternoon by a 65-57 score. The Tartans are now 10-6 overall and 3-3 in the UAA while the Maroons move to 6-11 and 1-5.

Sophomore R.J. Holmes (Buffalo Grove, Ill. / Adlai Stevenson) had his second straight 20-point game with 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field and an 8-for-11 showing from the free throw line. Junior Josh Berry (Western Springs, Ill. / Lyons Township) scored 16 points as junior Nick Nakasian (Powell, Ohio / Olentangy Liberty) had 15 points. Junior Kevin Sax () led the Tartans on the glass with nine rebounds.

The Tartans held a five-point lead at halftime, 34-29, after shooting 46.4% from the field. UChicago started with a 5-0 lead before the Tartans tied it at 5-5 and later at 8-8 before the last lead of the game for the Maroons came on a layup by Thomas Kurowski at the 15:41 mark of the first half.

Nikasian hit a three-pointer, the second of three straight for the Tartans, to give the home squad an 11-10 lead that they pushed to 22-12 over a five-minute span.

UChicago hit the first two baskets of the second half to pull the score to 34-33 but Berry answered with a three-pointer to start a 9-0 run to push the advantage back to 10. The Maroons rallied to within three points with 3:34 to play but another short run by the Tartans pushed it back to nine points with 1:52 to go and they held the Maroons off for the eight-point win.

The Tartans have now won four straight against the Maroons including sweeping the season series in 2019-2020 with 19 of their 23 wins against UChicago coming at home.

Carnegie Mellon will next travel to St. Louis to play Washington University on Friday, February 4 at 5:30 p.m. CT.