Box Score
The New York University men's basketball team nearly rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit, but ultimately fell 52-49 to rival Brandeis University in each team's University Athletic Association (UAA) opener on Saturday, January 7, at the Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.
The Violets (9-1, 0-1) suffered their first defeat of the season in heartbreaking fashion. After trimming the Judges' (7-5, 1-0) large advantage, NYU had a chance to pull even in the final seconds of the game, but was unable to get off a potential game-tying shot.
Trailing 49-46, the Violets gained possession with 25.0 seconds left when Ben Bartoldus took Brandeis' inbounds pass and stepped out of bounds right in front the NYU bench after being swarmed by a group of defenders.
The Violets then elected to go for a quick two rather than holding for a last-second three, but
Ryan Tana's attempted feed to
Andy Stein was knocked away by Tyrone Hughes. Hughes and Derek Retos combined to go 3-4 from the line the rest of the way to seal the win for the Judges.
“We tried to get it into Andy – we had enough time left and we still had a timeout – we just didn't execute,” said NYU head coach
Joe Nesci. “We just have to shake this one off and get ready for the next one.”
The Violets had to shake off a long scoreless drought to give themselves that last-second chance. After a Tana three-pointer capped a 12-3 run and pulled NYU to within two, 40-38, at the 9:36 mark, the squad managed just one field goal over the next nine minutes.
“We struggled offensively,” noted Nesci. “During the period where we didn't score, the guys felt like they needed to make threes when we should have just run our offense.”
Brandeis had a long drought of its own in the closing stages of the game, scoring its final field goal of the contest with 5:06 to play to take a seven-point lead, 49-42.
Stein finally got the Violets on the board with 41.9 seconds left, hitting a hook shot in the paint. After Tana nearly stole the ensuing inbounds, the Judges' Youri Dascy went to the line for a one-and-one with 39.2 ticks on the clock. Dascy missed, and
Carl Yaffe pulled down the board, giving NYU a chance to pull to within one possession.
The Violets did just that in remarkable fashion. Stein went to the line with 29.6 seconds left, where he missed both shots. But Yaffe timed the second miss perfectly and tipped in the rebound to pull NYU to within three at 49-46. The Violets then regained possession on the Bartoldus turnover before turning it over with 19 seconds left.
Both teams' struggled similarly in the first half, with Brandeis ultimately taking a 28-21 lead into the locker room.
Stein led all scorers with 19 points, leaving him just three shy of 1,000 for his career.
Kyle Stockmal had nine points, five assists and three steals, while Yaffe finished with seven points, 11 rebounds and three assists.
Bartoldus had 12 points and six boards for the Judges, while Vytas Kriskus totaled eight points and eight rebounds. Wouter van der Eng recorded career highs of nine points and seven boards off the bench.
NYU travels uptown on Tuesday for a non-conference clash at Hunter College. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 pm.
