The New York University men's basketball team ended the game on a 12-2 run to pull out a 65-63 victory at Brandeis University in the teams' regular-season finale on Saturday, February 25, in Waltham, MA.
 
The win, combined with Emory University's loss, helped the Violets (20-5, 9-5) finish alone in second place in the University Athletic Association (UAA) while giving them their first 20-win season since 2006-07. More importantly, it kept their hopes of receiving an at-large berth in the NCAA Division III Championship alive. NYU will find out its postseason fate on Monday; the NCAA selection show begins at noon.
 
The Violets' 20th victory didn't come easy, as the squad needed to overcome at 12-point second-half deficit. The Judges' (13-12, 7-7) lead was at eight, 61-53, with 5:50 left before NYU took over with the 12-2 run.
 
Ryan Tana started the spurt with a three-pointer, and after a defensive stop, Devin Karch hit a jumper in the paint to pull the Violets to within three.
 
The score was still 61-58 inside two minutes when Andy Stein fed a cutting Kyle Stockmal under the basket. Stockmal hit the layup, drew the foul and then converted the three-point play, tying the score at 61-61 with 1:55 remaining.
 
Vytas Kriskus came right down and hit a layup for Brandeis to put the Judges back up two. NYU responded by going inside to Stein, who finished in the paint to knot things up again. The Violets then got a stop on the defensive end and again went to Stein, who drilled a hook shot with 34 seconds left for the go-ahead basket.
 
Brandeis elected not to hold for the final shot, but after a Ben Bartoldus miss, the Judges regained possession on a jump ball with 12.2 seconds to play. Tyrone Hughes ran the clock down after the inbounds and was fouled with 2.7 seconds left, sending him to the line for a one-and-one. Hughes missed the first shot, and Carl Yaffe came down with the board and ran out the clock, giving the Violets the huge victory.
 
"I thought it was a matter of buckling down on defense and working hard to execute on offense," said head coach Joe Nesci. "We held them under 34% in the second half, and Andy hit two huge shots under pressure and came up with some big defensive rebounds.
 
"We made some big plays and got some big stops late," he added. "It was a great performance at both ends of the floor."
 
NYU performed great in the first 15 minutes of the game, as well, going up 29-21 on a Tana trey. But the Judges ended the first half on a 12-2 spurt to take a two-point lead, 33-31, into the locker room.
 
Brandeis stayed hot to start the second period, scoring nine unanswered to turn a three-point lead into a 12-point advantage, 51-39, with 12:04 left. But the Violets kept the margin close and then dominated the final five minutes, led by Stein's play down low and big shots from Tana, Karch and Stockmal.
 
Stein finished with 16 points and three assists, while Karch scored a career-high 14 points on 6-8 shooting off the bench. Stockmal totaled 11 points, while Max Wein recorded nine points and seven rebounds.
 
Kriskus led Brandeis with 21 points and 12 boards. Youri Dascy tallied 11 points and four rebounds, while Hughes and Bartoldus each netted six points. Hughes added six assists.
 
The NCAA selection show will begin on Monday at 12:00 pm on NCAA.com. If the Violets are not selected, they will be in line to receive a bid to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Metro Championship.
 
"We're looking forward to postseason play," commented Nesci. "I think we have an excellent chance to make NCAA's – we just have to await Monday's selection show."