Junior Evan Kupferberger's layup at the buzzer gave the New York University men's basketball team a victory over Emory on Sunday.  The Violets raised their overall record to 14-6, 5-4 in the University Athletic Association, following a 72-70 decision over the No. 14-ranked Eagles who slipped to 15-5 in overall play, 5-4 in the league.

With 1.5 seconds on the clock, NYU's Patrick Burns inbounded the ball with a heave to the three-point line where Costis Gontikas deflected the ball to Kuperberg who was positioned on the block. He then proceeded to lay the ball as the clock expired, giving the NYU the triumph and Emory's its first setback of the year at home in 11 decisions.

The loss negated an Emory comeback bid that saw it trail by a 69-60 count with 5:42 left in the contest.  The Eagles chipped away at their deficit with senior Michael Florin sinking four straight free throws to draw them to within five points.   Two charity tosses by junior Will Trawick with 3:46 on the clock sliced NYU's advantage to three points, and senior Josh Schattie kept the momentum going when a layup put Emory down by just one point.  Kupferberg then made one-of-two from the foul line, putting NYU ahead, 72-70, but Emory knotted the score with 1:34 remaining when senior Alex Foster hit a jumper.  Emory eventually got the ball back with 16 seconds left following a Violet shot-clock violation and had a chance to win in the waning seconds, but saw a shot attempt blocked and then have a put-back ruled as being shot over the backboard, allowing NYU to get possession with 1.5 seconds on the clock, setting the stage for the improbable finish.

Foster led five Emory double-figure scorers with 19 points and also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.  Schattie finished with 13 points, his eighth double-digit performance of the campaign, ending the contest sinking five-of-10 from the floor and three-of-four from the stripe.  Trawick contributed 11 points while junior Davis Rao and Florin each totaled 10 points. 

NYU never trailed in the contest and registered a 43.5 percent (27-of-62) effort from the floor while Emory finished at 34.2 percent (26-of-76).  The Violets enjoyed the better of it in three-point shooting, connecting on nine-of-20, while Emory was successful on just two of 28 opportunities.  Kupferberg led all players with 24 points, hitting 11-of-16 from the floor, and helped NYU to a 47-36 edge in rebounding with eight boards.  Hakeem Harris added 18 points for NYU.

NYU scored the game's first seven points and led by as many as 10, 39-29, with 4:24 left in the opening stanza.  The Eagles responded with a 10-1 charge, capped by a bucket by Rao, to creep to within one point with 1:41 left before a Harris triple with seven ticks on the clock enabled NYU to claim a 43-39 lead heading into halftime.

The Eagles return to action on Friday (Feb. 13) when they host Washington University.