Senior Will Trawick led four double-figure with 19 points but it wasn't enough as the Emory men's basketball team saw a furious rally come up short Sunday afternoon at Case Western Reserve.  The Spartans raised their overall record to 11-12, 4-8 in the University Athletic Association, following an 88-78 triumph over the Eagles who slipped to 17-7 overall, 10-3 in the league.

Emory trailed by as many as 20 points in the first half, and still faced a 12-point deficit with 12:19 remaining in the contest before battling back. Trailing by a 58-46 count, Emory put on a 7-1 charge, which featured a couple of buckets by junior Austin DaGue, to draw to within six points.  After a CWRU three pointer, four different Eagles scored baskets during an 8-0 run that sliced the Case Western lead to 62-61 with 6:43 on the clock.  The Spartans countered with an 8-2 spurt, capped by a triple by Jimmy Holman, to extend their advantage to seven points, but with senior Davis Rao scoring the next six Emory points, the Eagles stayed in the hunt, trailing by just three points 3:59 remaining.  A jumper by sophomore Adam Gigax kept the Eagles to within three points, but eight straight Case points, which saw Colin Zucker and Holman hit treys, pushed the host squad to an 11-point bulge with 1:11 on the clock.  A three pointer by Trawick, followed by a basket by Rao, cut the gap to six points with 48 ticks remaining, but the Spartans held on the secure the win.

Trawick's 19 points represented his 19^th double-figure scoring effort of the campaign while his game-high 10 rebounds marked his second double-double of the year. Rao totaled 14 points, sinking six-of-13 field goal opportunities, while Gigax and DaGue rounded out the double-digit scorers with 13 and 12 points, respectively.  DaGue also finished with eight boards and his three blocked shots was his 14^th outing of multiple rejections of the year.

For the game, Emory connected on 40.5 percent (30 of 74) from the floor with CWRU finishing at 40.3 percent (27 of 67).   Three-point shooting was pivotal for Case with the Spartans knocking down 15 (an opponent season high vs. Emory) in 30 attempts while the Eagles were successful on just 18.5 percent (5 of 27). 

Holding a 13-12 lead in the first half, CWRU went on a 23-4 scoring spree vs. the Eagles, hitting nine-of-12 field goals (five treys), while Emory hit just one field goal in nine tries, in bolting to a 36-16 lead with 5:40 left in the half.  The Eagles were able to regroup on close out the final 4:02 of the half on an 11-0 burst that sliced its deficit to seven points, 38-31 at the break.  The Spartans drained eight three pointers in the opening 20 minutes of play, with Matt Clark totaling 17 of his game-high 33 points.

Despite the setback, Emory still remains tied with Rochester for the top spot in the UAA.  Shortly after the Eagles' loss, UR came out on the short end of a 102-97 double-overtime loss at Carnegie Mellon.    Emory and Rochester will clash for the outright UAA title next Saturday (Feb. 27) with the winner earning the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.