The No. 5 ranked Emory University men's basketball team concluded a perfect 4-0 homestand Sunday afternoon as the Eagles dispatched No. 22 New York University, 103-80, at the Woodruff PE Center in Atlanta.
Senior Ben Pearce had another monster game for the Eagles as he nearly had a double-double with 31 points and nine assists as he led Emory to its first 100-point outing during conference play this season. Classmate Jair Knight poured in an additional 23 points while contributing six rebounds and four steals and junior AJ Harris netted 15 points to go along with five boards and three assists. Junior Ethan Fauss joined them in double figures with 11 points and finished with seven rebounds and four assists.
"Excited to see the way our guys competed and continued to improve this weekend," said Head Coach Jason Zimmerman. "Our defensive urgency in the second half today was the best it has been in awhile. Our senior class of Tyson, Johnny, Ben and Jair have done an excellent job of leading the team over past two weeks, as they have done all year, and we are looking forward to continuing to build on the road next weekend."
Sunday's top 25 clash started with both teams on fire from long range as the Eagles converted their first four three-pointers to establish a 15-5 lead before the first media timeout of the game. However, the Violets returned the favor with their own 15-5 run to even the score prior to the under 12 timeout.
From there the teams traded leads until an 8-0 run gave NYU its largest lead of the half at 38-33 with 6:56 remaining before the break. The Eagles continued to trail until a triple by Harris Jackson put the Eagles back in front at 46-44 with 2:57 left to go. The teams were knotted up again at 48-48 with under a minute to play but a good tip-in by Harris with 43 seconds left had Emory once again in the lead before a highlight reel alley-oop dunk from Will Otto to Knight prior to the final buzzer sounding lifted the crowd onto their feet at the break.
Pearce and Harris continued to build the momentum in the second half for the Eagles as they combined for the team's first nine points in the return to the court, giving Emory the 11-point cushion. A 5-0 spurt from the Violets brought the lead back down to six but the Eagles answered with a 9-5 lead to make the score 70-60 with 13:42 showing.
Emory never saw the lead dip below double digits for the remainder of the contest and extended its lead to as many as 29 points with an AJ Mickens free throw to push the advantage to 101-72 with 1:53 to go.
The Eagles will carry their four-game winning streak with them on the road next weekend as Emory travels to Case Western Reserve and Carnegie Mellon for the final away games of the regular season.
History Watch
With his 31 points today, Pearce needs just 42 points to break Emory's all-time career scoring record of 1,875 points set by Tim Garrett (1987-90).
