Juniors Adam Gigax and Christopher Avant combined for 34 points but it wasn't enough as the Emory men's basketball team dropped a Sunday afternoon University Athletic Association contest at New York University. The Eagles fell to 14-6 overall, 5-4 in the University Athletic Association following a 80-79 setback to the Violets who improved to 7-12 in overall action, 2-7 in the league.
Trailing by a 77-71 margin, NYU closed out the final 2:35 of the contest on a 9-2 run to earn the come-from-behind win. The Violets' Joe Timmes nailed a long-range three pointer with 38 ticks on the clock that snapped a 77-77 deadlock. Gigax narrowed the gap to one point with 25 seconds following a layup. Emory fouled NYU's Ross Udine who then misfired on the front end of a one-and-one, giving Emory a chance to win. On the possession, Emory eventually inbounded the ball underneath the Violets basket with four seconds remaining. A three-point attempt from the corner off the inbounds missed the mark.
Gigax paced the Eagles' scoring attack with 19 points, sinking seven-of-15 field goal attempts. Christopher Avant contributed 15 points, 11 over the final 20 minutes of play, ending the afternoon successful on seven-of-nine from the floor and one-of-two from the charity stripe. Jim Gordon added 13 points while sophomore Gebereal Baitey highlighted a strong performance by the Emory bench with 11 points, nine in the second half, converting five field goals in 10 opportunities, including his lone three-point attempt. Junior Whit Rapp dished out 11 assists, his eighth double-figure performance of the year in that category.
A 10-0 Emory blitz, which was started by a Gigax trey and finished with his layup, gave the Eagles 54-45 lead with 13:10 left in the contest. After NYU had narrowed the score to 55-51, a layup by Christopher Avant followed by a Baitey bucket extended the Eagles' cushion to 59-51. Holding a 63-59 advantage, the Eagles registered an 8-2 spurt, with Gordon getting things started with an acrobatic score on a drive and that was followed by back-to-back three pointers by Spencer Osborne and Baitey, pushing them to a 71-61 lead with 7:31 on the clock. However, the Violets battled back with a 10-2 blitz, capped by a Timmes' three pointer, to cut the Emory lead to two points with 4:53 on the clock. Buckets by Gordon and Christopher Avant stretched their lead to six points with 2:58 remaining, with NY beginning its comeback shortly thereafter.
Emory concluded the afternoon shooting 47.1 percent (33 of 70) from the floor but sank just 24.1 percent (7 of 29) from beyond the arc. NYU was successful on 45.8 percent (27 of 59) of its field goal attempts and converted 42.3 percent (11 of 26) from distance. NYU was 15-of-16 from the stripe while Emory hit five of its six tries.
In a closely played first half, NYU took a 39-34 edge into halftime. Emory saw its reserves account for a 6-0 spurt with Donald Avant, Nick Tunpanjanin and Osborne all scoring to give the Eagles a 17-11 lead with 11:35 left. The Violets then answered with a 7-0 run to take a one-point advantage with 8:46 on the clock. A jumper by Rapp followed by back-to-back buckets by Donald Avant pushed the Eagles to a 23-18 lead, but NYU scored eight of the game's next nine points to claim a two-point margin. Later, a triple by Gigax followed by a jumper by Baitey allowed Emory to lay claim to a 32-29 lead but the Violets closed out the final 3:02 of the stanza on a 10-2 flurry in taking the five-point lead. Gigax scored eight points during the opening 20 minutes while Donald Avant chipped in seven. The Eagles' bench scored 13 points. NYU shot 37.1 percent (13 of 35) from the floor to Emory's 36.8 percent (14 of 38) and hit six three-point field goals in 14 attempts. NYU's Ross Udine topped all players with 14 points, hitting four-of-nine from the floor, including three treys in five tries. Udine would end the game with 26 points
Emory returns to action on Friday (Feb. 10) when it plays at Washington University in a scheduled 8:00 pm (CST) start.