Sharpshooting Jensen Helps Men's Basketball Jolt Case Western, 78-72

Keith Jensen is 80 points away from 1,000 in his career.

Powered by Keith Jensen's season-high 23 points, New York University staved off Case Western Reserve University, 78-72, in a battle of University Athletic Association (UAA) men's basketball rivals Sunday afternoon at the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center.

Jensen knocked down five three-pointers for the Violets (13-5, 4-3 UAA), who went 11-for-23 (47.8%) from beyond the arc while winning their third straight contest. It was the second straight game Jensen scored 20-plus points. He finished the game with 920 points, keeping him on course to become the 25th 1,000-point scorer in NYU men's basketball history.

Richie Polan contributed his third double-double of the season for NYU, finishing with 13 points and 13 rebounds in 25 minutes. Four of his points came in the final 32 seconds.

Before the Violets could celebrate, though, they needed to endure a plucky Spartans' squad led by Tom Summers' 19 points and 14 rebounds.

Trailing 48-38, Case Western (9-8, 1-5 UAA) scored 13 unanswered points, including seven straight in one sequence by Alex Hildebrandt, to claim a 51-48 lead with 14:09 remaining. NYU rallied by rediscovering its perimeter success, getting two three-pointers apiece from Jensen and Omar Meziab (12 points) and a three-ball from Chip Borsi to secure a 66-58 cushion with 8:55 remaining.

Case Western pulled within 66-65 before two free throws from Derek Becker (9 points, 4 steals) and an inside bucket by Carl Yaffe (9 points, 5 rebounds) extended NYU's lead to 70-65 with 5:34 to go. The Spartans never got closer than three points the remainder of the game.

Before the game could play out, though, both teams needed to shake off the effects of a stoppage caused when the Coles Sports Center fire alarms sounded just 1:27 into the contest.

After a 19-minute delay, both teams returned to the court with Case Western ahead, 5-2. The Violets forged a 7-7 tie before the Spartans' Eric Duerr and Bryan Erce produced four points apiece during an ensuing 11-4 surge that gave the visitors an 18-11 lead. NYU eventually headed into halftime ahead by a 37-33 count thanks to strong bench play from Ben Dorman (career-high 7 points in 10 minutes) and Polan, who combined for 16 points. Jensen paced the home squad with 12 first-half tallies.

NYU shot 44.4% overall (28-for-63) and 78.6% at the charity stripe (11-for-14).

Reid Anderson (17 points), Bryan Erce (12) and Eric Duerr (11) rounded out the quartet of double-digit scorers for the Spartans, who shot 44.6% from the floor (25-for-56) and 27.3% from three-point range (5-for-19). Case Western owned a 38-34 rebounding advantage.

NYU and Case Western will tip off again next Sunday in Cleveland. Prior to that, the Violets will travel to Pittsburgh to face Carnegie Mellon University.