Box Score The No. 5 ranked men's Emory men's basketball team (17-4, 7-3 UAA) hosted the No. 2 ranked NYU Violets (20-1,9-1 UAA) for a pivotal meeting between two of the UAA's top teams at the Woodruff P.E. Center in Atlanta, Georgia on Friday evening. Despite a late push from the Eagles in the second half, the Violets prevailed and survived the comeback bid to strengthen their grip on first place in the UAA standings.
 
Senior Logan Shanahan had another strong performance, despite the loss, scoring 20 points and grabbing eight boards. Junior Jair Knight was close behind with 18 points and five rebounds, and sophomore AJ Harris finished with 13 points.
 
It took the Eagles a little while to get going on offense, scoring their first field goal of the game nearly four minutes into the contest. Luckily, the Violets were still feeling themselves out as well. Senior Cale Martens knocked down a three while sophomore AJ Harris knocked down a shot inside as well to provide the Eagles with a small burst. As the two offenses began to find its footing, the Violets held an 18-15 lead with 11 minutes showing on the clock.
 
The NYU offense really came alive after the Martens three, though, as the Violets went on a 10-0 run over the next three minutes. The Violets knocked down a trio of three-point shots over the run, as the Eagles missed three from deep. Knight snapped the skid with a jumper followed by a triple by Shanahan, bringing the score to 33-21 with six minutes left on the clock.
 
Emory and NYU continued to trade blows down the stretch of the second half with the Violets taking a 45-33 lead into the break. The NYU offense seemingly couldn't miss in the first half, shooting over 50% from the field as well as 53.85% from beyond the arc.
 
Knight came out firing in the second half, slamming home a dunk from Pearce in the opening possession. The dunk sparked a run to open the half for the Eagles, with Harris knocking down a three and Shanahan adding four free throws to pull within six quickly. Harris pulled up from deep once again at the 15-minute mark, bringing the Eagles within striking distance at 53-49. Chuma Oyigbo of NYU answered the call, though, knocking down two shots from beyond the arc on back-to-back possessions to re-establish a 10-point lead just moments later.
 
The well ran dry or Emory as the Eagles struggled to find any success from deep in crunch time, missing six consecutive three-point attempts over a seven minute stretch.
 
Yet, Emory kept the lead to at-least two possessions until the 5:30 mark of the second half when Shanahan converted a dunk while drawing the foul before hitting his free throw to make it 70-68. The Pennsylvania native continued to keep Emory in the game, scoring four points and recording a steal in the following couple of minutes.
 
With two minutes showing on the clock and the Eagles down two, senior Albert Fallas ended the drought from beyond the arc, drilling a crucial three-point shot to give Emory its first lead of the ballgame at 77-76 and kicking off a dramatic, back-and-forth final 120 seconds.
 
The Eagles called timeout to regroup before heading to play defense. The Violets put the ball in Tristan How's hands. Once again, though, it was Shanahan making a clutch play, swatting away How's layup to retain possession for the Eagles.
 
How got his revenge in transition, stuffing Harris before pushing the ball down the court as Hampton Sanders nailed a three for the Violets to retake the lead, 79-77 before the Violets took a timeout of their own.
 
Emory took a page out of NYU's book and put the ball in their leading scorer's hands, as Knight drove to the hoop looking to knot things up at 79 points apiece. Emmanuel Onuama had other plans and rejected the shot. Sanders, once again in transition following a block, converted a layup to extend the Violets lead to four points with just 21 ticks left on the clock. Just seconds later, Onuama fouled Pearce and he knocked down the free throws to make it a two-point game once again.
 
On the ensuing possession, Harris poked the ball free and was fouled to head to the line. Harris went to the line with two shots and a chance to tie the game, but left empty-handed, going 0-for-2, forcing the Eagles to foul NYU's Zay Freeney. Now, Freeney had a chance to ice out the game for the Violets, but he could only muster a one-for-two performance from the charity stripe to keep the score at 82-79. Emory called a timeout to draw up a last shot for a chance at overtime.
 
Head coach Jason Zimmerman once again put the ball in Knight's hands. The junior guard pulled up from deep as time expired, but could not find the net as his shot just missed the mark as NYU pulled out a crucial in-conference, road win.
 
All told, the Eagles struggled from three-point range whereas the Violets did not. NYU shot 54.5% from beyond the arc with Emory shooting just 26.7%.
 
With the loss, Emory drops to 17-4 overall and 7-3 in UAA play. Emory finds itself tied for second with Chicago in the UAA standings, two games behind NYU with four games left to play.
 
The Eagles will look to bounce back on Sunday when they take on the Brandeis Judges at home. The matchup with the Judges will start at 2:00 PM.