The No. 2 ranked Emory University men's basketball team responded in a big way Saturday afternoon as the Eagles earned an emphatic 101-64 win over the University of Rochester in the University Athletic Association opener in Atlanta.

With the win, the Eagles improve to 11-1 overall and 1-0 inside UAA competition while the Yellowjackets slip to 6-6 on the season and 0-1 in UAA play. Emory has now won nine of the last 10 in the meeting and has 17 straight wins at home over UR. Saturday marked the first time either team reached the 100-point mark in the series and matched the largest margin of victory for either side in 73 all-time meetings.

Junior Jair Knight paced all scorers with 29 points as he went 11-for-15 from the floor. Sophomore AJ Harris and senior Albert Fallas finished with matching 12-point efforts while junior Ben Pearce narrowly missed a double-double with nine points and nine assists. Senior Logan Shanahan was a dominating presence down low as he totaled 11 points and a team-high eight rebounds to go along with a career-best seven blocks – the fifth-most by an Eagle in a single-game in program history and the most since Michael Friedberg swatted away seven shots against NYU in 2012. With the win, Head Coach Jason Zimmerman now sits just one win shy of joining the 300-win club as he improves his overall coaching record to 299-134.

Despite the wintry conditions outside the Woodruff PE Center on Saturday, the Eagles were red-hot to open the contest as Emory shot 51.2% in the first half and were 48.2% from the field in the game. The Eagles converted seven of their first nine shot attempts and led by as many as 13 in the early stages. Fallas and Shanahan led off the scoring with baskets inside the first 2:02 minutes and Emory never trailed for the entire afternoon.

Following a stretch where the Eagles were in front 24-11, the Yellowjackets answered with a 22-10 streak of their own over the next 6:27 minutes to slash the Emory lead to 34-33 with 6:41 remaining in the opening half – the closest the game would be on the day.

After Rochester cut the deficit to a single point, Harris responded with a three-pointer which started a 19-6 run for the Eagles over the final minutes of the half to aid Emory to take a 53-39 into the halftime break.

The Eagles maintained the suffocating pressure to begin the second half as Emory continued with an 18-4 stretch, spanning the opening 7:01 of the second half. Knight took over during the run as he supplied 11 of the team's 18 points.

Emory saw its lead increase to as many as 37 points in the final stanza with the Eagles' defense holding Rochester to just 21.1% (8-for-38) shooting, compared to Emory's 48.6% mark, as EU outscored the Yellowjackets 48-25 in the half. Thirteen of the 16 Eagles that saw the floor found themselves in the scoring column.

The Eagles will head out on the road next weekend as Emory is set to battle No. 4 ranked NYU and Brandeis University in the first road swing of the UAA slate. Tip off against the Violets is scheduled for 5:30 PM on Friday, January 17.