The Emory men's basketball cut a 20-point second-half deficit to four points but fell short in its comeback Saturday afternoon, coming out on the short end of its season finale at the University of Rochester.  Emory saw its overall record slip to 15-10, 7-7 in the University Athletic Association following an 85-71 setback to the Yellowjackets who boosted their overall mark to 15-10, 6-8 in the league.

Rochester ended the game shooting 56.9 percent from the floor (29-of-51) including 52.4 percent from three-point range (11-of-21).  Emory connected on 43.1 percent of its field goal opportunities ( 25-of-58) and nailed 41.7 percent (10-of-24) from three-point range.   The Eagles turned the ball over on 15 occasions with Rochester converting those miscues into 24 points. 

Leading the Emory scoring attack was sophomore guard Austin Claunch with a career-high 25 points, hitting nine-of-15 from the floor and five-of-eight from three-point range.  Freshman Michael Friedberg also turned a career best with 17 points on six-of-nine shooting from the field, including three-of-five from distance.  Friedberg also paced the club with six rebounds.  Senior Daniel Curtin rounded out the team's double-figure scorers with 17 points.

Rochester staked itself to a 41-27 advantage at halftime, shooting a blistering 60 percent from the field while the Eagles hit on just 34.5 percent.   Bill Serle came off the UR bench to score 11 of his team-high 21 points during the opening 20 minutes of play while Curtin registered eight points for Emory.  Serle finished the afternoon converting six-of-nine from the floor, including four-of-six from three-point range, and four-of-six from the charity stripe.

Rochester extended its lead to 47-27 with 18:40 left in the game following a foul shot by Nate Novosel, but the Eagles staged a furious 27-11 explosion and cut the gap to four points, 58-54, with eight minutes left in the game with Friedberg scoring 12 points in that stretch while Claunch contributed eight points.  However, Rochester responded with a 12-1 spurt that pushed its lead to 70-55 with 5:44 on the clock.  From there, the closest Emory would get would be 11 points.