Junior Austin Claunch paced five double-figure scorers with 25 points in helping the Emory men's basketball team to an 88-71 victory over Carnegie Mellon Sunday afternoon at the Woodruff PE Center.  The win was the Eagles' fourth straight and raised their overall record to 13-3 and enabled the squad to remain in a tie for first place in the University Athletic Association with a 4-1 slate. Carnegie Mellon fell to 5-10, 2-3 in the conference.

Claunch hit eight-of-12 from the floor, including two-of-three from three-point range, en route to tying his second-highest career scoring effort.  Claunch also dished out 10 assists, his second straight outing and third on the year of double-figures in that department, and came up with four steals.  Freshman Jake Davis totaled 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the triumph while senior Julien Williams came through with a season-high tying 14 points, converting six-of-eight from the field, along with three steals.  Rounding out the team's double-figure scorers were junior Justin Resnick and sophomore Alex Greven with 12 points apiece with Resnick's total tying his season high.  Playing a key defensive role in the decision was sophomore Michael Friedberg who topped all players with a career-high 11 rebounds while registering 10 blocked shots, tying the second-highest individual game total in school history.

Emory ended the afternoon shooting 46.0 percent (29-of-63) from the floor compared to CMU's 36.6 percent (26-of-72) showing. The Eagles enjoyed a decided edge in three-point shooting, knocking down 43.8 percent (7-of-16) of their opportunities from beyond the arc while the Tartans connected on just 15 percent (3-of-20).

Carnegie Mellon got out of the blocks quickly, hitting eight of its first 11 field goal attempts in taking a 17-6 lead with 14:26 left in the first half.  The Eagles regrouped and responded with a 15-4 burst, keyed by six points by Davis and five by Resnick, to knot the affair at 21-21 with 8:07 left in the stanza.  With the scored tied at 23-23, Emory went on a 17-7 scoring spree, capped by a triple from Resnick, and built a 10-point edge, 40-30, with 2:52 on the clock. Behind 51.6 percent field goal shooting, along with 10 points each by Davis and Resnick, and nine from Claunch, Emory took a 45-36 margin into halftime. 

The Eagles kept the pressure on the visitors from Pittsburgh, opening the second half with a 13-2 scoring burst, sparked by a pair of triples by Williams, to assume a commanding 58-38 cushion with 16:33 left in the game.  Emory would lead by as many as 21 points with 15:17 remaining before Carnegie Mellon cut the deficit to 10 points with 9:36 left following a bucket by Matthew Pettit.  A three-pointer by junior Alex Gulotta, followed by a basket by Claunch, upped Emory's lead back to five points  with 6:06 left, but the Tartans mounted one last charge that drew them to within nine points  with 4:34 on the clock. However, Claunch scored nine points in a 12-4 run that pushed Emory ahead by an 86-69 count with 1:56 left that sealed the outcome of the game.

Emory, now 8-1 at home this season, hits the road next Friday (Jan. 28) for a contest at Brandeis.