Balanced Scoring Leads Tartans to 10-Point Victory

(PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – A balanced scoring attack led the Carnegie Mellon University men's basketball team to a 71-61 victory at home against Denison University on Sunday, November 26. The win improves the Tartans' record to 5-1 while the Big Red drops to 2-4.

How it Happened

• Denison opened the game with a second-chance basket after winning the tip but junior Nolan Casey quickly answered with layup off a dish from sophomore Justin Allen.
• The teams traded baskets before the Tartans used an eight-point run that included a three-pointer and a driving dunk along the baseline by Allen.
• A triple by Tyler Miller would pull the Big Red within two points at 14-12 before senior Jack Stone and junior Aidan Murphy connected on back-to-back shots to put the Tartans up seven with 11:51 to go in the first period.
• Denison pulled the deficit to one point with a three-pointer by Scotty Dean with nine to play but senior R.J. Holmes started a 10-1 run with a layup off an assist by Casey to give the Tartans their first double-digit lead of the game at 32-22 with 6:17 showing on the first half clock.
• An 8-4 spurt by Denison closed the half with the Tartans leading 36-30.
• The early minutes of the second half were back and forth with the Tartans holding the lead and the Big Red only closing the gap to three points on a few occasions, the last of which came on a second-chance basket by Ricky Radtke with 13:15 to play in the game.
• The Tartans called timeout and after DeJardin made two free throws to make the score 58-50 with 5:46 to go.
• Allen, DeJardin, and Holmes followed the timeout with buckets to give the home team its largest lead of the game at 15 points with just more than four minutes to play.
• The Tartans closed the game by making 6-of-8 free throws to seal the double-digit victory.

For the Tartans

• Allen led the team in scoring for the fourth game with 19 points. He also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds.
• Holmes followed with 15 points and a game-high four assists and two blocks.
• DeJardin tallied 13 points while Stone recorded double-digits for the second straight game with 11 points.
• The team shot a season-low 40.7% from the floor.
• Casey tied his career-high with eight rebounds.

For the Big Red

• Dean led with 17 points.
• Kellon Smith scored 11 points and Miller finished with nine points.
• Radtke led the game with 11 rebounds and Trevor Reed and Miller each had two blocks.

Up Next

The Tartans host St. John Fisher (3-2) on Tuesday, November 28 at 5:30 p.m.