Men's Basketball Surges Past SUNY Oneonta, 62-55

Jensen Scores 11 of Season-High 18 in Second Half as Violets Improve to 9-0

Keith Jensen led all scorers Tuesday night with 18 points.

Keith Jensen tallied 11 of his season-high 18 points in the second half and snared six rebounds as New York University improved to 9-0 with a 62-55 victory over SUNY Oneonta in non-conference men's basketball action Tuesday night at the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.

"It's a good win against a real athletic, talented team," NYU head coach Joe Nesci said. "They're long, they're rangy and they're strong, so they defended us well."

John Mish added 16 points and nine rebounds for the Violets, who won their final non-league tune-up before beginning University Athletic Association play Friday night at home against #15-ranked Carnegie Mellon University. NYU is receiving 22 votes in the latest D3Hoops.com Top 25 Poll.

Richie Polan finished with nine points and 10 rebounds for the Violets, while D.J. Glavan contributed eight points and a career-high-tying seven rebounds.

Brian Beckford led SUNY Oneonta (8-4), the first-place team in the SUNY Athletic Conference, with 14 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. Michael Grimes added 10 points for the Red Dragons.

After SUNY Oneonta took a 26-24 halftime lead following a first half featuring 12 lead changes and five ties, NYU went ahead to stay with a 13-2 spurt to start the second half, starting with five straight points before a bucket by Bill Morrissey made it 37-28 with 14:15 remaining.

The Red Dragons eventually pulled within 54-52 after a free throw by Beckford with 1:28 remaining, but the Violets again displayed the late-game composure that has punctuated their undefeated start when Glavan grabbed an offensive rebound and fed Mish for an easy lay-up to make it 56-52 with 1:06 to go.

Glavan then canned a pair from the charity stripe with 31.6 seconds remaining to make it 58-52. Jensen went 2-for-2 from the line with 9.2 ticks left to increase the Violet cushion to 60-52.

"I think our guys are used to being in close games, so our execution was good," Nesci said. "We're not making all of our perimeter shots right now, but I thought we did a good job of making our free throws down the stretch."

NYU endured one of its coldest shooting efforts of the season, hitting 42.6 (23-for-54) of its shots, but just 17.6% (3-for-17) of its three-point tries, while converting only 61.9% (13-for-21) of its free-throw attempts. The Violets did own a 38-36 rebounding edge and outscored the Red Dragons, 38-24, in the paint.

Oneonta shot just 37.5% (21-for-56), including 22.2% (6-for-27) from long range. In the second half, the Red Dragons shot just 31.3% (10-for-32).