Led by its five seniors in their final regular season home game, the New York University men's basketball team defeated rival Brandeis University 59-57 on Saturday, February 23, at the Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.
 
Carl Yaffe and Devin Karch led the way with 19 points apiece, including several big buckets down the stretch. Max Wein hit the free throws to seal the win, while twin brothers Kyle Stockmal and Cory Stockmal contributed eight and four points, respectively. The five seniors were honored prior to the game for their stellar careers at NYU.
 
Highlights
 
- The Violets (15-10, 5-9) trailed 20-12 midway through the first half before forcing three ties. A Karch three-point play with 1:22 left gave NYU its first lead since the opening minutes, but the Judges' (17-8, 8-6) Ishmael Kalilou hit a layup at the 1:07 mark to send Brandeis into the locker room up 29-28.
 
- Yaffe, Karch and Kyle Stockmal scored all the Violets' points during a 14-3 run to open the second period. However, the Judges came all the way back and went up three, 54-51, with 4:12 left on a Youri Dascy layup.
 
- Yaffe and Karch each had four points over the next two minutes to put NYU up one, 57-56, with 2:05 to go. The score was still 57-56 when Dascy went to the line with 5.5 seconds left and a chance to either tie or give Brandeis the lead. He missed both free throws, however, and Wein came down with a huge board and was fouled immediately.
 
- Wein hit both free throws with 4.4 ticks on the clock to give the Violets a 59-56 lead. The Judges' Alex Stoyle ended up at the line with 0.4 seconds showing. After hitting the first, he intentionally missed the second, but Karch knocked it away to end the game.
 
- Yaffe added eight rebounds to his 19 points and moved up to fifth in school history in career scoring with 1,347 points, one better than Harold "Happy" Hairston. Karch had six boards along with his 19 points. Kyle Stockmal followed with eight points, while Iyoga Agho contributed five points off the bench.
 
- Gabriel Moton led Brandeis with 14 points and six assists. Dascy tallied 11 points and eight rebounds.
 
"Our defense was solid and we did a good job of rebounding," said Head Coach Joe Nesci. "We really had to fight and struggle to score against them. But, we did really well down the stretch. Devin and Carl hit some big shots, and Cory Stockmal played a great game off the bench."
 
NYU will find out if it has been invited to participate in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Metro Championship on Monday. Details will be posted on www.gonyuathletics.com.