The New York University men's basketball team defeated the University of Chicago 72-59 in a University Athletic Association (UAA) game on Friday, February 19, at the Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.
The Violets, who won for the sixth time in seven games, are now 19-4 overall and 8-4 in the UAA while the Maroons fell to 16-7 and 7-5.
Patrick Burns led the way for the Violets with game highs of 19 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks, and two steals.
"My mentality coming into tonight was to play my game, be aggressive, get to the rim, and rebound," Burns said.
NYU fell behind by as many as seven points, 21-14, midway through the first half. However, the Violets responded by scoring the next 10 points and going on a 16-5 run to take a 30-26 halftime lead.
The Violets shot 48.4 percent (15-of-31) in the first half while holding the Maroons to just 31.3 percent (10-of-32) from the floor.
"We got big stops and strung a few plays together at the end of the first half," said Assistant Coach
Taylor Roth. "We really did a nice job of attacking our wing ball screens, hitting our posts and our guards did a great job all night of getting into the lane."
Chicago pulled to within two points early in the second half, but the Violets never relinquished the lead the rest of the way. NYU took its biggest lead of the game, 69-56, on a pair of free throws by
Ross Udine with 1:04 remaining before
Evan Kupferberg's steal and dunk with 41 seconds left closed out the scoring.
Kupferberg fell just short of a double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds, while Udine finished with a game-high eight assists and scored 10 points.
HIGHLIGHTS:-
Costis Gontikas, who finished with seven points and six rebounds, was honored before the game for scoring his 1,000th career point on January 29.
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Max Ralby contributed nine points and four assists.
- Collin Barthel led Chicago with 14 points.
- The Violets outshot the Maroons 52.6 percent (30-of-57) to 31.8 percent from the field.
"We played really hard and together," Roth added. "The guys trusted each other all game and in the adjustments we made. That's how you pull out a big win."
The Violets return to action this Sunday, February 21, when they host Washington University in St. Louis in the final home game of the regular season. Tipoff is set for 12:00 pm.
