SE Georgia News

Freshman Benjamin Pearce drilled a three-pointer with 0.8 seconds remaining to give the Emory University men's basketball team a 70-67 win over Brandeis University Sunday afternoon on Senior Day.

The win keeps the Eagles' NCAA tournament at-large bid alive as the team moves to 16-8 overall and 7-6 inside the UAA. Brandeis drops to .500 at 12-12 and now stand at 4-9 in UAA play with one game remaining in the season. Prior to Sunday's contest, Emory honored its four-member senior class of JJ Halaby, Mason Johnson, Greg Lawrence and Dubem Nnake with a special on-court ceremony.

With 15.8 seconds remaining, the Eagles called a timeout and worked the ball from in front of their bench to the far sideline. An errant pass was knocked out of bounds by a Brandeis defender, giving Emory the ball with 3.8 seconds left under their own basket. Pearce inbounded the ball to Johnson, who pitched it back to Pearce in the corner where he buried the game-winner.

The shot capped off another second half comeback for the Eagles as they erased a 40-33 deficit over the final 20 minutes of play. The game featured 10 ties and 10 lead changes including two each over the final two minutes of action.

Freshman Jair Knight paced the Eagles with his first-ever double-double, going for a game-high 18 points with 14 coming in the second half and a season-high 10 rebounds. Pearce's dagger gave him 13 points on the afternoon to go with four assists while Johnson and sophomore Cale Martens each had 10 points to round out the top Emory scorers.

For the game, Emory outshot Brandeis 42.9% - 39.3%, had the rebounding edge 37-35 and won the turnover battle 14-10 which lead to a 22-6  scoring edge in points off those turnovers.

The Eagles conclude the regular season next Saturday as they travel to Rochester, New York to battle the Yellowjackets at the Palestra. Tipoff is set for 2:00 PM.

Original source can be found here.