Men’s Basketball Fall in Quarterfinals of ECAC South Championships

Feb. 28 – (ANNVILLE, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon men’s basketball team, seeded sixth, traveled to Annville, Pa. Wednesday evening to play host to the third seeeded Flying Dutchmen of Lebanon Valley College in the quarterfinal game of the ECAC South Region Championship. The Tartans fell to the Flying Dutchmen 84-75.

The Tartans came out from the start on fire, as junior Geoff Kozak (Huntingdon, Pa.) converted his first two three-point attempts giving Carnegie Mellon the early 6-2 lead. The Cardinal and Gray went on a 9-0 run half way through the first stanza building their largest lead of the half, 21-9 with 12:09 to play in the first. The Tartan run was stopped by a trey from sophomore Dan Hodge. Hodge’s trey sparked eight straight points for the Flying Dutchmen cutting the Tartans lead to 21-17 at the 10:21 mark.

Four points was as close as the Flying Dutchmen got the rest of the half, as Carnegie Mellon scored the next six points to extend their lead back to double figures (27-17) and headed into the locker room with a 39-33 advantage. Kozak recorded a team-high 12 points in the first half, while sophomore teammate Corey O’Rourke (Merion, Pa./St. Joe Prep) dished out five assists and grabbed five boards to lead all players at the break.

The Flying Dutchmen came out flying to start the second half, as they went in an 11-3 run to take their first lead of the game 44-42 with 17 minutes left in regulation. The lead for LVC didn’t last long as Carnegie Mellon rattled off nine of the next eleven points to take a 51-46 lead with 14:23 to play. Senior Jimmy Curran’s trey with 10:33 to play knotted the score at 55-55, but senior Brad Matta (White Oak, Pa./Serra Catholic) gave the Tartans the lead back (58-55) answering Curran’s trey with one of his own on the en suing possession.

The Tartans expanded their lead back to seven (63-56), but the Flying Dutchmen would not go away scoring seven straight to bring the score to even at 63-63 with 7:33 left in the second. After each team exchanged baskets LVC took the lead on a three-point basket by senior Hunter Bretschneider and lengthened their lead to 72-65 with 2:59 showing on the clock, as they went onto the 84-75 victory.

Kozak led four Tartans in double figures with 19 points. Sophomore Ryan Einwag (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) added 13, Matta had 12 and freshman Jack Anderson (Beaver Falls, Pa.) cashed in with 10. O’Rourke led all players with career-highs grabbing 11 rebounds and handing out nine assists in the loss.

Carnegie Mellon ends their season with a 12-13 record as LVC move to 15-11 and will play the winner of the DeSales / Gwynedd-Mercy game in the semifinals.