#20 Tartans Return to Win Column

Feb. 19 - (CLEVELAND, Ohio) – The #20 Carnegie Mellon Tartans inched closer to the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship with an 80-75 win over host Case Western Reserve University on Sunday, February 19. The win avenged an earlier season loss to Case Western, 72-69, on the Tartans home court in January and ties the school record of 19 victories in a season, as Carnegie Mellon improves to 19-5 and 9-4 in the UAA. Case drops to 11-13 and 3-10.

Carnegie Mellon took a 42-37 halftime lead behind senior forward Nate Maurer's (Pittsburgh, Pa./Linsly School) first half 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. But it was a group of other players that led the Tartans on an 11-4 run to end the half.

With the score tied at 31-31 and 3:41 to go, senior forward Marques Johnson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair) sandwiched a jumper and lay-up around Case Western's Steve Young's lay-up, putting the Tartans up 35-33.

Senior forward Bary Dunn (Pittsburgh, Pa./Taylor Allderdice) then converted a conventional three-point play and sophomore guard Geoff Kozak (Huntingdon, Pa.) picked Matt Cannan's pocket and drove for the fast break lay-up and a 40-35 Carnegie Mellon advantage. Maurer finished the run with a transition lay-up for the 42-37 halftime lead.

Carnegie Mellon held on to an eight point lead, 52-44, with 15:50 to play when Case ran off nine straight points to take a 53-52 lead, their first since the 11:26 mark of the first half.

Junior forward Greg Gonzalez (Southlake, Texas/Carroll) stopped the Spartan run that spanned three plus minutes with a lay-up at the 12:26 mark.

A back-and-forth battle led to a six point lead in favor of the Tartans, 71-65, on a lay-up by Dunn. Kozak answered a trey by Case's Young with his own from the top of the key, making the score 74-68.

Carnegie Mellon gave the Spartans a chance at victory, as Mason Conrad converted two lay-ups and dropped the deficit to 74-72 with 1:13 to play. In between Conrad's lay-ups, the Tartans missed their seventh straight free throw of the half after grabbing three offensive rebounds.

Maurer stopped the Tartans scoreless streak from the charity stripe as he hit four straight in a 13 second span advancing the score to 78-72.

The Spartans however remained alive when, after being fouled on a fast break dunk, Maurer missed his two ensuing free throws and Carson Oren nailed a triple with six seconds to go, making it a one possession game. That was until junior guard Brad Matta (White Oak, Pa./Serra Catholic), a 91.7 percent free throw shooter, was fouled and sealed the win making both attempts.

Maurer finished as the game's high scorer making 11-of-19 field goal attempts and four of six triples on his way to 30 points. He was also the game's high rebounder, pulling in nine for the Tartans. Kozak followed Maurer as the only other Tartan in double figures with 10 points.

Maurer also led the Tartans in the assist column with five, as Kozak, Johnson and freshman guard Corey O'Rourke (Merion, Pa./St. Joe Prep) each had four.

Four players scored in double digits for the Spartans with Oren leading the way with 18 points. Young followed with 14, as Cannan and Conrad had 13 and 11, respectively. Oren was also the team's high rebounder with eight boards.

The Tartans were out rebounded 44-37 but won the turnover battle with only nine miscues to Case's 12.

Carnegie Mellon will look to become only the second team in school history to make the NCAA playoffs with a win Saturday, February 25 against the University of Rochester (16-8, 7-6). At present time, Carnegie Mellon is tied at the top with Washington University and holds the tiebreaker should both teams win or lose next week, as long as their results are the same. Game time on Saturday is set for 4:00 p.m. in Skibo Gymnasium.