Freshman Jake Davis led five double-figure scorers with 17 points but it wasn't enough as the Emory men's basketball team came out on the short end of a hard-fought overtime decision at Carnegie Mellon University Sunday afternoon.   The Eagles saw their six-game winning streak snapped and their record slip to 19-5, 10-3 in the University Athletic Association, following a 72-70 setback to the Tartans who upped their overall record to 7-16, 4-9 in the conference.

Both teams shot below 40 percent from the field with Emory checking in at 37.1 percent (23-of-62) and CMU at 39.3 percent (24-of-61).  The Eagles converted just 22.2 percent (4-of-18) of their three-point opportunities while the Tartans were successful on 45.5 percent (10-of-22).  Leading Carnegie Mellon in scoring was senior Shane Rife with a game-high 29 points.  Rife, who was playing his final contest in Skibo Gymnasium, also pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds.

For Emory, in addition to Davis' 17 points, sophomore Michael Friedberg totaled 12 points along with a career-high 12 boards en route to his second double-double of the year. Sophomore Alex Greven chipped in 11 points, five in the overtime session, while senior Julien Williams and junior Austin Claunch rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 points apiece.

After a Rife layup with 11:55 remaining in regulation tied the game at 44-44, Emory scored six unanswered points, with junior Alex Gulotta tallying five of that total, to assume a 50-44 edge.  The Eagles extended their lead to seven points, 52-45, with 8:41 remaining after a basket by Greven. However, the Tartans went scored the game's next eight points capped by back-to-back triples by Rashaun Riley and Asad Meghani, to go up by a 53-52 margin. A free throw by Williams with 3:36 remaining snapped a 54-54 deadlock and gave Emory a one-point lead.  CMU then used a three-point field goal by Rife, one of his six for the contest, with 1:13 remaining to take a 57-55 edge.  Emory then tied the game and eventually forced the extra session when Davis scored on a layup with 51 seconds left.

Emory scored first in overtime on a Davis bucket, by triples by Riley and Rife gave the home club a 63-59 lead with 3:30 left. A pair of charity tosses by  Davis with 1:18 left cut the CMU lead to one point, 66-65, but a basket by Matthew Pettit followed a pair of free throws by Riley upped CMU's advantage to 70-65 with just 30 ticks left.  Greven kept Emory's hopes alive with a trey with 26 seconds left.  After Riley made one of two free throws with 17 seconds on the clock, Greven scored on a layup seven seconds later to draw Emory to within 71-70.  CMU's John Duhring then made one of two free throws to stretch the score to 72-70 with nine seconds left.  Emory had the last shot of the game but misfired in the waning moments.

The opening 20 minutes was a tale of two halves with the Eagles holding CMU scoreless for over five minutes at one point and owning a 19-8 advantage with 8:28 left.  The Tartans responded with a 17-2 charge that enabled them to take a 25-21 lead with 4:48 remaining. Emory used a 10-4 spurt over the last 4:04 of the stanza, with Friedberg scoring all five of his first-half points in that stretch, to take a 31-29 advantage at halftime.  Emory shot 44 percent (11-of-25) during the first half and was led by Claunch's eight points.  The Tartans connected on 37.0 percent (10-of-27) of their field goal tries and were paced in scoring by Rife's 14 points,

Emory returns to action next Saturday (Feb. 26) when it closes out the regular season by hosting the University of Rochester in a 4:00 p.m. start.