Sophomore Matt Davet led a balanced scoring attack with a game-high 23 points in leading the Emory men's basketball team to a Sunday afternoon win at Carnegie Mellon University. The Eagles upped their overall record to 19-5, 10-3 in the University Athletic Association following an 89-74 triumph over the Tartans who fell to 10-14 in overall action, 5-8 in the conference. Emory is tied with the University of Rochester for the top spot in the league, and those two teams will square off next Saturday (Feb. 23) at the Woodruff PE Center for the outright title and the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Davet converted 10-of-17 field goal attempts en route to racking up his ninth performance of 20 or more points this season. He had plenty of help in the offensive column with sophomore Lawrence Rowley chalking up 19 points on the strength of six-of-10 shooting from the field and seven-of-nine from the stripe. Sophomore Romin Williams turned in a 16-point afternoon, hitting seven field goals in 14 opportunities, while senior Gebereal Baitey and sophomore Matt Schner rounded out the double-figure scorers with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Schner also snatched a game-high 12 rebounds for his third double-double of the season.
Emory had to withstand a second-half comeback bid by the Tartans who were playing their final home game of the season. Ahead by a 10-point margin, buckets by Baitey and Schner upped the Eagles to a 56-42 lead with 16:28 left in the contest. CMU responded with a 13-6 run that sliced its deficit to seven points with 12:10 on the clock. The Tartans remained within striking distance, down by eight with 9:25 remaining before Davet hit a triple, then a three-point play, which was followed by a Baitey trey to account for a 9-0 blitz that extended Emory's cushion to 75-58 with 7:05 left. CMU got to within in 13 points with 3:20 on the clock, but a pair of charity tosses by sophomore Nick Stuck followed by a Schner triple, shut the door on the Tartans.
For the game, Emory sank 50.7 percent (35-of-69) from the floor compared to CMU's 49.1 percent (28-of-57). The Tartans held an edge in three-point shooting, 46.2 percent (6-of-13) to the Eagles' 28.6 percent (6-of-21), but Emory countered with a hefty 43-26 margin in rebounding, 18-8 on the offensive end of the floor which helped lead to a 23-6 edge in second-chance points.
Emory held a 16-10 advantage with 12:16 left in the opening half before holding the Tartans scoreless for over four minutes, while registering 10 straight points, to move to a 26-10 lead with 8:08 on the clock. Williams scored all of his opening-half 12 points in helping the Eagles to the 16-point cushion, ending the stanza five-of-eight from the floor including two-of-four from beyond the arc. Ahead by a 15-point margin, Emory used five consecutive points from Davet in building its largest lead of the half at 35-15 with 4:41 remaining. A 5-0 CMU spurt would cut Emory's margin to 13 points with 2:02 left and the differential remained that way as the Eagles took a 44-31 lead into halftime. Emory shot 57.6 percent (19-of-33) from the floor during the opening 20 minutes compared to CMU's 40.7 percent (11-of-27). Rowley and Davet complemented Williams' scoring output with each player adding 11 points.