The Violets' largest crowd of the season got to see the best game of the season.

Brock Susko's layup at the buzzer gave the New York University men's basketball team a 61-59 victory over the University of Chicago on Friday, February 7, at the John A. Paulson Center in Manhattan. 

The #3-ranked Violets (18-1, 7-1) trailed the #24 Maroons (14-5, 5-3) by a game-high nine points, 44-35, early in the second half.

NYU rallied and took the lead 56-55 on Tristan How's jumper with 5:11 remaining. 

The teams stayed within three points of each other until the Maroons' Thomas Kurowski tied the score at 59-59 with 57 second left.

Neither team was able to convert on its next possession.

Then, NYU held for the last shot. Jack Stone's attempt did not fall with 0.2 left.

After an official's review, 0.5 was put on the clock, just enough time for Susko's heroics.

"Originally, we were going to try something with .2 where you really can't do anything but a tip," Head Coach Dave Klatsky explained. "But with .5, I went back to a the basics, a simple screen-to-screen. I won a game in high school with the same play. So, I said let's try it, one of the oldest plays in the books. And, it just wound up working exactly the way we wanted it to."

After another official's review to see if the shot was off in time, the call was confirmed and the season-high 930 spectators were free to leave.

"Screen-to-screen is a classic action and it worked," Susko said. "Coach set it up perfectly. The right guys were in the right place. I thank him for putting me in that position. We work on this everyday in practice, situational drills. You look at the score, you look at the time, and we were all on the same page."

Susko's 14 points led four Violets in double figures, as Emmanuel Onuama finished with 12 points and both How and Hampton Sanders scored 10.

Susko added a game-high eight rebounds and Hampton led the way with five assists.

"Getting down by nine points, its easy to fracture at that moment," Klatsky added. "But, you just have to try and win every possession. This is a very resilient bunch."

The Violets return to action on Super Bowl Sunday when they host Washington University in St. Louis. Tip-off at the Paulson Center is scheduled for 2:00pm.