Ryan Tana and Devin Karch both scored career highs to lead the New York University men's basketball team to an 84-74 victory over SUNY Geneseo in its season opener on Saturday, November 17, at the Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.
 
Tana netted a career-best 20 points to lead all scorers, while Karch scored a career-high 18 points. Kyle Stockmal (17 points) and Carl Yaffe (15 points) also scored in double figures for the Violets (1-0), who advance to the Tip-Off Tournament Championship at 3:00 pm at Coles on Sunday to face the winner of Gwynedd-Mercy College/John Jay College.

Highlights
 
- Tana scored his 20 points while shooting 8-11 from the field, including 4-5 from three-point range. Karch had just one miss from the floor in netting 18, going 7-8.
 
- Yaffe added 11 rebounds to his 15 points to notch his ninth career double-double. He now sits just seven points shy of 1,000 for his career.
 
- NYU never trailed in a game in which it shot 58.5% (31-53) from the field and 47.1% (8-17) from three.
 
- The Blue Knights (0-1) got as close as five with 7:59 left, but the Violets responded with an 8-0 run to go back up by double digits. Tana started the spurt with a three from Yaffe, and Yaffe capped it with a triple on a feed from Karch.
 
- Yaffe and Stockmal had five assists apiece, while Adam Xu added a career-high four helpers. NYU finished with 24 assists for the game.
 
"Our execution in the halfcourt was very good, and we hit big shots against their zone," said Head Coach Joe Nesci. "We expected this type of game against a tough and experienced team."
 
Sunday's Tip-Off Tournament Championship will be preceded by the Third-Place Game at 1:00 pm.