The No. 20 Emory University men's basketball team saw its two-game winning streak stopped Sunday afternoon, falling to No. 13 New York University, 86-77, at the John A. Paulson Center in Manhattan.
Junior Cale Martens paced four Eagles in double figures, totaling 20 points on 8-for-18 shooting and tied a season-high with four three-pointers. Sophomore Jair Knight finished with 18 points while contributing eight rebounds, four steals and three assists. Classmate Ben Pearce posted a stat line of 14 points, seven assists and six rebounds and freshman AJ Harris impressed with 13 points and a career-best eight rebounds.
The Violets were led by the duo of Michael Savarino and Spencer Freedman, who combined for 41 points. Six NYU players found the scoring column in the win with five Violets reaching double digits. NYU maintains its UAA lead with the win, going 5-2 in the first half of the conference slate, while the Eagles slip to 3-4 in the UAA and 12-6 on the season.
Savarino was firing for the Violets in the early stages, scoring all of NYU's 15 points to open the game as the Violets found themselves in front 15-3 at the 15:55 mark when Emory called its first timeout. NYU was ahead by as many as 16 points at 25-9 before Pearce and Harris converted a trio of threes to bring the Eagles to within nine, forcing the Violets to burn a timeout at 11:10.
Later in the half, Emory rolled out a 12-4 run with Knight scoring eight points in the spurt as the Eagles cut the deficit to four at 37-33 but NYU countered with five straight points to head into the locker room with a 42-33 halftime advantage.
In the second half, Emory came out strong with a 7-3 start and would narrow the NYU edge to two at 53-51 when Martens and junior Albert Fallas sank long distance shots around the 15:00 mark. A missed-timed alley oop from Fallas and Knight led to Savarino scoring his first points since the opening stretch, draining a triple before Freedman sank one of his own on the following trip to give NYU the 59-51 lead at the 13:12 timeout.
Four minutes later the Eagles cut the margin to two once more when Harris made a three prior to a Knight runner, bringing it to 63-61 with 9:21 left to play. However out of the NYU timeout, Savarino once again converted a shot from beyond the arc to keep the Eagles at bay.
The teams traded barbs from there and Emory saw its opportunity to take its first lead of the game with under five minutes to play when Knight rejected a Freedman three-point attempt but would miss a close-range layup at the other end which would have been the go-ahead bucket. NYU answered with an Emmanuel Onuma two-handed slam followed by a Zay Freeny three pointer. Fallas stopped the brief Violets burst with another three ball though, making the scoring 73-70 NYU with 3:07 to go.
That was as close as the Eagles would come though as NYU was able to put the game away in the closing minutes with timely layups and clutch free throws.
Next up for the Eagles is the UAA wrap around as Emory hosts Brandeis and the Violets next weekend at the WoodPEC. The Eagles will welcome the Judges to Atlanta first on Friday, February 2 for a 7:30 PM tip off.