The Case Western Reserve University men's basketball team overcame a 12-point first-half deficit to pick up a key University Athletic Association road win over New York University 88-82 in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday's win gave the Spartans a sweep of their weekend UAA road trip and moved the team to 4-3 in the conference at the halfway mark of the league schedule. CWRU sits just a game out of the lead in the conference standings behind first-place Emory and WashU and is tied with Carnegie Mellon and Rochester for third. CWRU stands at 14-3 overall on the season.

NYU dropped to 13-5 overall with a 2-5 conference mark following the loss.

Graduate student guard Mitch Prendergast led all Spartans with 19 points in the game, while senior forward Cole Frilling added 18 points, seven rebounds, and four assists. Graduate student guard Danny Frauenheim added 12 points, five rebounds, four assists, and four steals, and junior guard Luke Thorburn shot four-of-four from the floor for 11 points with six rebounds.

The Spartans were able to weather a slow start to the game after the team trailed 9-0 at the 16:33 mark and 17-5 with 13:49 left in the first half. CWRU responded with 10 unanswered points, capped off with a three-pointer by Prendergast with 10:41 left that cut the Violets' lead to a pair, 17-15. NYU followed with a 10-0 run of their own, going back ahead by 12, 27-15, with 7:09 to play in the first half. Once again, the Spartans rallied, ending the half on an 18-5 run. Frilling tied the game at 29-29 with 1:36 left with a layup and Prendergast gave the Spartans their first lead of the game, connecting on a jumper with 44 seconds remaining to put CWRU ahead 31-29. After an NYU three-pointer with 31 seconds left put the Violets back out in front, Frilling put back a rebound off a missed three and the buzzer sounded to send the Spartans into the locker room with a 33-32 advantage.

After trailing for nearly the entire first half, the Spartans led from wire to wire over the final 20 minutes of the game. CWRU led 53-50 with 9:53 left in the game before breaking the contest open with a 24-11 run over the next seven and a half minutes to cement its lead. The Spartans led by as many as 16 points in the game, going ahead 77-61 with 2:22 left on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Sam Trunley. The Violets closed the lead to as few as five points in the closing minute of the game, but the Spartans held off NYU for the win.

CWRU finished the game shooting 47.5% overall and outrebounded the Violets 42-32.

The win was the Spartans' first Sunday UAA road victory since topping NYU in New York in 2020. It was CWRU's fourth win in its last five road games at NYU after winning just one road game against the Violets prior to the 2017-18 campaign.

With the first half of the conference schedule now complete, the Spartans will return home next weekend to host Brandeis on Friday night and NYU on Sunday afternoon at Horsburgh Gymnasium in Cleveland.