The Emory University men's basketball team earned themselves a Halloween treat Tuesday night, knocking off Division II's No. 10 ranked Augusta University 96-86 in Atlanta.
Junior Cale Martens and sophomore Ben Pearce led four Eagles in double figures as Emory, who enters the season No. 19 in the d3hoops.com national poll, downed the Jaguars in exhibition play. Martens poured in a game-high 22 points to go along with six rebounds while Pearce finished with 20 points and a game-high eight assists.
Pearce logged a team-high 34 minutes as he added five rebounds, one of five Eagles with five our more boards. Sophomore Jair Knight pitched in 15 points as did freshmen Ethan Fauss, who had a solid Emory debut with 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting to go along with five rebounds and a team-best three steals.
The Eagles started the night strong, scoring 11 of the first 14 points across the game's opening five minutes. Emory held the lead until AU knotted the score at 23-23 at 8:57 remaining before moving ahead at 27-26. The first half stayed evenly contested with Augusta going into halftime with a four-point lead at 46-42.
Emory returned from the break by scoring nine of the first 13 points within two minutes to take a 51-50. A 9-0 run helped the Eagles gain a 60-51 lead and would later see the lead swell to as many 15 points at 80-65 with 6:46 left to play.
The Jaguars clawed back to within four at 82-78 with 4:11 to go but a five-point burst from junior Logan Shanahan helped clinch the victory. Knight paced all scorers with 13 of his 15 points in the second half with Pearce chipping in 11 over the final 20 minutes, including a perfect 7-for-7 from the line.
Emory has one more exhibition, traveling to Georgia Southwestern on Sunday, November 5th, before beginning the regular season on November 12th at Piedmont University.