The New York University men's basketball team is set to make its long-awaited return to the NCAA Division III Final Four.
With a 75-65 win over the University of Redlands Bulldogs on Saturday, March 15, at the John A. Paulson Center in Manhattan, the Violets clinched their spot in Fort Wayne, IN, for the Final Four. This is the first Final Four appearance for the Violets' men's program since 1994.
"I'm just so excited and happy and proud of this group to perform at this stage on this level," said Head Coach Dave Klatsky. "You want it so bad for them and you try and help them as much as you can, but it's on them and these guys came to play."
NYU held Redlands scoreless in the opening five minutes, going up 8-0 in that run.
Zay Freeney scored all 13 Violet points in the first seven minutes, giving them a 13-2 lead.
After establishing their offensive presence in the opening minutes, the Violets held the Bulldogs without a field goal for more than five minutes later in the half. NYU's Jack Stone and Chuma Oyigbo converted back-to-back three-pointers in response to push the advantage back to nearly 20 points.
The Violets led 33-23 at the halftime break.
Despite an offensive uptick from Redlands in the second half, Freeney continued to churn for the Violets - providing an exclamation point of a dunk as part of a 6-2 run that gave NYU a 51-36 lead in the second half.
NYU was without its University Athletic Association (UAA) Player Of the Year Tristan How for nearly half of the game after he ran into early foul trouble. With How and Emmanuel Onuama struggling with the referee's whistle, the brunt of the scoring fell to Freeney and Brock Susko, who scored 25 points and 21 points, respectively.
"I've had a lot of success against teams that pressed and they wanna play fast," said Freeney. "So, I knew coming in today that I was gonna have to be the leader early."
The Bulldog's press proved to be a challenge for NYU's offense and helped Redlands pull within four points, 64-60, of the lead with 3:02 remaining in the second half.
Susko and Hampton Sanders each scored a key basket in succession in the final minutes to ultimately ensure a Violet victory.
"This is the type of game where you're just out there playing," said Klatsky. "Coaching kind of goes out the window. We tried to put them in the best position possible in in preparation...We really wanted to try and take advantage of their aggressiveness to get some points out of it."
This is the Violet men's second all-time Division III Final Four appearance and first since 1994.
"I feel like I have a lot of alumni reaching out to me to tell me 'congrats on a great season just keep going,' and that really means a lot to me," said Freeney. "It puts me perspective how just crazy this year has been for us and it's truly a blessing for us to be here and still playing."
NYU is set to face fellow UAA member WashU in their Final Four match-up on Thursday, Mar. 20 at 8:00 p.m. ET at teh Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind. The winner will face either Trinity (CT) or Wesleyan (CT) in the National Championship on Mar. 22.
