For the second time in four days, the No. 3 ranked Emory University men's basketball team collected a win over Carnegie Mellon University as the Eagles topped the visiting Tartans, 94-70, in front of the home Atlanta crowd Wednesday afternoon.
Five different Emory scorers reached double digits in the win with senior Ben Pearce and sophomore Mario Awasum netting double-doubles for the Eagles. Pearce had a near triple-double with 20 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds while Awasum went for 10 points and a team-leading 11 rebounds. Senior Jair Knight led all Emory players with 21 points to go along seven rebounds and three assists. Junior AJ Harris posted 19 points as he sank five threes and classmate Ethan Fauss recorded 13 points.
Prior to the start of the game, Pearce was recognized as he became the all-time leading scorer in Emory men's basketball history on Sunday. He currently stands at 1,918 points as he became the first player to reach 1,900 career points in a career.
Carnegie Mellon held the early lead Wednesday afternoon and controlled pace with an 18-12 advantage at the under 12-minute timeout. Knight and Harris combined for a 7-0 lead to push the Eagles back in front before CMU regained the lead at 22-21. The Eagles went on another unanswered run, scoring nine straight points from Knight, Harris and Spencer Hall to lead 29-22 and continued to build their lead to take a 42-27 score into the break.
Emory's lead quickly swelled to 20 points with an 11-6 run out of halftime but the Tartans fought to cut the deficit to six at 55-49 with 12:16 remaining. Awasum highlighted a 9-0 burst to have the lead reach double digits again and the Eagles caught fire from long range as Pearce, Fauss and Harris had Emory leading 82-58 with 5:19 to play.
Back-to-back dunks from Knight and a later triple by Ethan Fauss had the score read 89-64 with 3:09 showing and the Eagles would control the remainder of regulation en route to the 24-point win.
Emory will conclude the regular season Saturday afternoon by hosting Rochester in the finale. The Eagles will honor their four-member senior class prior to the 2:00 PM scheduled tip off.
