Senior Christopher Avant's basket with less than one second remaining snapped a tie game and gave the Emory men's basketball a thrilling Friday evening win at Carnegie Mellon.  The No. 13-ranked Eagles raised their overall record to 17-4, 8-2 in the University Athletic Association, following an 82-80 decision over the Tartans who fell to 5-16 in overall action, 1-9 in the league.

After being fouled on a three-point shot attempt, CMU's Ryan Maha sank a trifecta of free throws to knot the score at 80-80 with 13 seconds remaining.  With the ball in Whit Rapp's hands, he found Avant who had gotten favorable position in the lane, whereupon he laid it in off the glass for the game's winning points.

Senior Adam Gigax led four Emory double-figure scorers with a season-high 27 points, his fifth outing of 20 or more points this season.  He ended the night eight-of-15 from the field, including five-of-eight from beyond the arc, while sinking all six of his field goal attempts. Junior Gebereal Baitey notched 16 points in the victory, converting seven-of-16 floor opportunities along with a pair of charity tosses. Avant posted an 11-point contest and pulled down a team-leading eight boards.  Junior Beau Bommarito contributed 10 points, six coming on the strength of a pair of triples.

After a Bommarito trey to start the second half gave the Eagles a 40-29 lead, the Tartans quickly got back in the contest following back-to-back three-pointers by Zach Howarth, who ended the evening with 25 points.  A 7-2 Emory burst, started by a bucket by Baitey and capped by five straight points by Avant, boosted the Eagles back to a 10-point edge with 16:30 remaining.  Emory eventually built a 12-point cushion, 55-43, with 15:00 on the clock after Gigax hit a three-pointer, one of his three in the half.  After a trey by sophomore Nick Tupanjanin made the score 60-50 in Emory's favor, CMU scored six straight points to creep to within four.  Three free throws by Gigax extended the Eagles to a 65-56 margin, but an 8-0 CMU blitz, with Howarth scoring four points sliced Emory's lead to one point with 5:51 remaining.  Emory's Romin Williams and CMU's Maha traded three-pointers before a Gigax bomb with 3:59 left gave the Eagles 71-67 lead. After a Carnegie bucket, a drive and score by Baitey followed by a three-point play by Avant put Emory ahead, 76-69, with 2:32 on the clock.  The Eagles led by seven, 78-71, only to see the Tartans rattle off six unanswered points, capped by a trey by Copper Williams, to narrow their deficit to a single digit.  Rapp put Emory ahead three points with a pair of makes from the line with 27 ticks left, setting the stage for the down-to-the wire finish.

Emory shot 44.6 percent (29-65) from the floor while CMU connected on 47.5 percent (28-59) of its attempts, 59.3 percent over the final 20 minutes of play. The Eagles converted 45.5 percent (10-22) of their triple tries, with their 10 makes marking the ninth time this season they finished with double figures in that category.  CMU held a 39-33 edge in rebounding, but turned the ball over 16 times to Emory's 11 miscues.

Emory scored the first eight points of the game and used a triple by Gigax with 11:18 left in the stanza to claim a 10-point edge at 18-8.  The Eagles capitalized on some cold field goal shooting by the Tartans that saw them hit just three of their first 17 tries from the floor in taking 28-13 lead following a dunk by Baitey with 7:28 remaining.  A bucket by Baitey with 4:58 left in the stanza gave the Eagles a 32-17 cushion, but CMU closed out the final 4:20 of the half on a 12-5 spurt to narrow its deficit to eight points at 37-29 heading into halftime.  Emory shot 40.5 percent (15-37) from the field over the first 20 minutes vs. 33.3 percent (9-27) for the Tartans.  CMU turned the ball over on nine occasions, which led to 13 Emory points.  Gigax picked up 13 points to pace the scoring effort while Baitey totaled 10 points

Emory returns to action on Sunday (Feb. 11) when it plays at Case Western Reserve in an 11:00 am start.