The Emory University men's basketball team captured an 86-76 victory over the Rochester Yellowjackets in its final regular season game of the year on Saturday afternoon in Rochester, New York.
The Eagles record improves to 17-8 on the season while they finished the regular season with a UAA record of 8-6 which slots them third in conference play this year. The Yellowjackets move to 6-8 with the loss which places them sixth in the UAA.
Sophomore Cale Martens matched his career-high in points as he notched 18 while shooting an efficient 7-for-10 from the field and also pulling down ten rebounds to garner his seventh double-double of the season. Freshman Benjamin Pearce matched Martens point total with 18 of his own while also registering a new career-high in assists with nine. Senior Mason Johnson was the only other Eagle to cross the double digit threshold in scoring as put together a line of 13 points, six rebounds and two blocks. For the Yellowjackets, Ross Gang led them in scoring as he scored 18 points to match Martens and Pearce.
Despite the Yellowjackets finishing the game with 20 more shot attempts than the Eagles, Emory was significantly more efficient with its attempts as they shot at a 50% clip while Rochester could only convert their attempts at a 33.3% rate. Emory was very selective with their three point attempts shooting just 12, their fewest in a game this season, but knocked down eight of them which stands as their best shooting mark from deep this season. Rochester held a notable rebounding advantage as they pulled down 22 offensive rebounds to Emory's seven.
Long runs of both teams going scoreless in the first ten minutes of the game were quickly erased as the two teams underwent a scoring barrage to close the first half. Despite both teams scoring in bulk, neither team led by more than five in the first half as the Yellowjackets carried a 39-36 lead into halftime.
An 11-0 run that spanned five minutes of the second half was the first time the Eagles were able to create any separation as they went up 56-48 with just over 10 minutes left to play in the game. Rochester slowly chipped away at Emory's lead cutting it to four with two and a half minutes left to play but that would be as close as they would get as Emory built the lead back up to ten winning 86-76.
The Eagles will find out their postseason destiny at 1:00 PM on Monday during the NCAA Selection Show as the men's basketball team hopes to secure an at-large bid to the DIII NCAA Tournament.