Sophomore Sean Brophy's three-pointer with less than a second left in the game propelled Carnegie Mellon to a home victory over Emory Friday evening. The Tartans used Brophy's late-game heroics in raising their record to 8-15 overall, 3-9 in the University Athletic following an 82-79 verdict over the No. 18-ranked Eagles who slipped to 18-5 overall, 7-5 in the league.
The setback negated an outstanding effort by Emory junior Alex Greven who led all players with a season-high 27 points along with a team-high six rebounds. Greven sank 11-of-16 from the field, including three-of-seven from three-point range in registering his 10th double-figure scoring performance of the season and third of 20 or more points. Junior Michael Friedberg and sophomore Jake Davis rounded out the team's double-figure scorers with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Emory ended the evening shooting 49.2 percent (30-of-61) from the field while the Tartans checked in at 48.3 percent (29-of-60). CMU enjoyed an advantage in three-point shooting, converting 50 percent (9-of-18) of its opportunities compared to the Eagles' 30 percent (6-of-20) showing. Carnegie Mellon made the most of its free throw attempts, knocking down 15-of-16 while Emory sank 13-of-22.
After trailing by seven points at halftime, Emory opened the second half on an 8-3 run that cut the CMU lead to two points, 43-41. A couple of buckets by Friedberg, along with baskets by Greven and senior Justin Resnick, enabled Emory to tie the contest at 49-49 with 15:49 left in the game. After a three-pointer by CMU's Andre Moore with 13:44 on the clock gave the Tartans a 56-53 lead, an 8-0 spurt by the Eagles, with Greven and senior Austin Claunch hitting triples in that stretch, pushed them up by a 61-56 margin. But CMU countered with a 9-0 blitz that allowed it to reclaim the lead at 65-61 before back-to-back treys by Greven gave the Eagles the lead again, 67-65, with 7:12 remaining.
A three-pointer by CMU's Asad Meghani started CMU on a 9-2 spurt that enabled the hosts to lay claim to a 74-69 margin. A pair of free throws, followed by a basket by the Eagles' Jake Davis sliced the Tartans lead to one point with 3:58 remaining, but CMU managed to stay out in front when a trey by John Duhring put the Tartans up by a 77-73 score with 3:28 left. The Eagles responded with baskets by Claunch and Greven that knotted the score. After a jumper by Joe Kromka with 1:40 on the clock gave CMU a 79-77 lead, Claunch sank a pair of pressure-packed free throws with eight seconds that tied the game for the ninth time on the night. However, CMU came away with the win when Brophy hit his first bucket of the night from the corner in front of the CMU bench with six-tenths of a second left.
Emory returns to action on Sunday (Feb. 19) when it plays at Case Western in a noon start.