Junior Austin Claunch paced five double-figure scorers with 25
points in helping the Emory men's basketball team to an 88-71
victory over Carnegie Mellon Sunday afternoon at the Woodruff PE
Center. The win was the Eagles' fourth straight and
raised their overall record to 13-3 and enabled the squad to remain
in a tie for first place in the University Athletic Association
with a 4-1 slate. Carnegie Mellon fell to 5-10, 2-3 in the
conference.
Claunch hit eight-of-12 from the floor, including two-of-three from
three-point range, en route to tying his second-highest career
scoring effort. Claunch also dished out 10 assists, his
second straight outing and third on the year of double-figures in
that department, and came up with four steals. Freshman Jake
Davis totaled 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the triumph
while senior Julien Williams came through with a season-high tying
14 points, converting six-of-eight from the field, along with three
steals. Rounding out the team's double-figure scorers
were junior Justin Resnick and sophomore Alex Greven with 12 points
apiece with Resnick's total tying his season high.
Playing a key defensive role in the decision was sophomore Michael
Friedberg who topped all players with a career-high 11 rebounds
while registering 10 blocked shots, tying the second-highest
individual game total in school history.
Emory ended the afternoon shooting 46.0 percent (29-of-63) from the
floor compared to CMU's 36.6 percent (26-of-72) showing. The
Eagles enjoyed a decided edge in three-point shooting, knocking
down 43.8 percent (7-of-16) of their opportunities from beyond the
arc while the Tartans connected on just 15 percent (3-of-20).
Carnegie Mellon got out of the blocks quickly, hitting eight of its
first 11 field goal attempts in taking a 17-6 lead with 14:26 left
in the first half. The Eagles regrouped and responded with a
15-4 burst, keyed by six points by Davis and five by Resnick, to
knot the affair at 21-21 with 8:07 left in the stanza. With
the scored tied at 23-23, Emory went on a 17-7 scoring spree,
capped by a triple from Resnick, and built a 10-point edge, 40-30,
with 2:52 on the clock. Behind 51.6 percent field goal shooting,
along with 10 points each by Davis and Resnick, and nine from
Claunch, Emory took a 45-36 margin into halftime.
The Eagles kept the pressure on the visitors from Pittsburgh,
opening the second half with a 13-2 scoring burst, sparked by a
pair of triples by Williams, to assume a commanding 58-38 cushion
with 16:33 left in the game. Emory would lead by as many as
21 points with 15:17 remaining before Carnegie Mellon cut the
deficit to 10 points with 9:36 left following a bucket by Matthew
Pettit. A three-pointer by junior Alex Gulotta, followed by a
basket by Claunch, upped Emory's lead back to five
points with 6:06 left, but the Tartans mounted one last
charge that drew them to within nine points with 4:34 on the
clock. However, Claunch scored nine points in a 12-4 run that
pushed Emory ahead by an 86-69 count with 1:56 left that sealed the
outcome of the game.
Emory, now 8-1 at home this season, hits the road next Friday (Jan.
28) for a contest at Brandeis.
