The No. 8 ranked Emory University men's basketball team opened the season with a convincing 91-71 win over the Berry College Vikings Sunday afternoon in Atlanta.
The Eagles erased a 13-point first half deficit and outscored the Vikings by 20 points in the second half for their first win. Junior Jair Knight led all scorers with a career-high 30 points while classmate Ben Pearce dropped 26 points. Senior Logan Shanahan notched his first double-double of the year with 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
Berry roared out of the gates to hold a 22-9 lead just 4:33 into the contest. From there, Emory locked down on defense to limit the Vikings to just 22 points over the final 15:27 of the first half.
Trailing 25-12, the Eagles began to chip away at the Vikings lead, beginning with a six-point sequence featuring buckets from Pearce and Knight to bring Emory to within six points.
Berry kept the game to at least two possessions until the 2:51 mark when Knight threw down one his several highlight-reel jams of the game to slash the score to 37-35. The Vikings continued to lead before a layup from senior Cale Martens and another dunk from Knight across the final 65 seconds sent the game into the break knotted at 44-44.
An excellent four-minute stretch by the Eagles in the return from halftime provided the breathing room needed across the final 20 minutes of action. Emory went on a 13-2 run following the break with all 13 points being scored by the trio of Shanahan, Pearce and Knight.
The Vikings did not go away easily as they stayed around and eventually cut the score to 67-63 following a three-pointer from Braxton Benham with 10:13 to play. The Eagles proceeded to go on a 10-3 run after the Benham triple, headlined by six points from Shanahan. Emory never saw the score dip below four points for the remainder of regulation.
Berry's Jacob Morgan sank all three free throws after he was fouled at the five-minute mark to make it a single-digit score once more but an answer three by Pearce on the other end at 4:42 silenced the Vikings. Following the Pearce three-ball, Emory went on an 11-2 run over the final 4:42 to close out the victory.
The Eagles will be back at the WoodPEC next Saturday, November 16th as they host No. 17 Guilford College in a 5:30pm tip off.