Junior Will Trawick and senior Alex Foster combined for 41 points in leading the Emory men's basketball team to a Friday evening win over Spalding in an opening-round contest of the NCAA D-III Men's Basketball Tournament.  The Eagles won their sixth straight game and raised their overall record to 21-5 following an 88-59 triumph over the Golden Eagles who closed out their season at 18-10.  The opening rounds are being hosted by Emory and played at the Woodruff PE Center.

Trawick scored 21 points and Trawick totaled 20 in helping Emory up its home record to 14-1.  Trawick knocked down eight-of-13 field goal attempts, including five three pointers in nine tries, en route to his 16^th double-figure scoring effort of the season and third of 20 or more points.  Foster was successful on seven-of-13 from the floor, four-of-nine from beyond the arc, in notching his 24^th double-digit performance and 14^th of 20 or more points. 14 of the 15 players who saw action for the Eagles found their way into the scoring column.

After building a 13-point lead at halftime, Emory, behind Trawick's three treys, hit its first eight and 10 of  its first 11 shots of the second half, outscoring Spalding by a 28-3 margin in building a 66-28 lead with 12:03 left in the game.  Foster chipped in seven points during the decisive stretch that saw the Eagles hit their first five three pointers in the stanza.  Emory closed out the second half outscoring Spalding by a 50-34 margin, draining a blazing 71.4 percent (20-of-28) from the floor, 61.5 percent (8-of-13) from beyond the arc.

Behind 13 points from Foster and a dozen from Trawick, the Eagles went into halftime with a 38-25 lead.  Despite shooting just 35.9 percent (14-of-39) from the floor in the opening stanza, the Eagles forced 11 turnovers that they turned into 17 points.  Spalding converted just 32.1 percent (9-of-28) of its field goal opportunities and misfired on all five of its three-point attempts.  A couple of three pointers by Foster keyed an early 9-0 Eagle run that gave them a 13-2 lead with 12:43 left in the first half.  Later in the half, Trawick scored the first five points and Florin added five points during a 15-4 Emory blitz that morphed a nine-point lead into a 28-8 advantage with 7:46 left in the half.  A Trawick triple kept Emory up by 20 points with 5:24 on the clock and Foster would score five of the squad's seven points over the final 4:08 to account for the 15-point cushion.

For the game, Emory was successful on 50.7 percent (34-of-67) and drained 42.2 percent from distance, knocking down 14 treys, tying its second-highest total of the season. Spalding finished with a 38 percent (19-of-50) showing from the floor and made two of nine from three-point range.  The Eagles finished with a 38-28 advantage in rebounding were led in that category by sophomore Austin DaGue's career-high tying nine boards.

Emory advances to Saturday's second round where it will play No. 13 Whitworth (25-3) at 7:00 pm.