ATLANTA, Georgia – In a game that featured 10 ties and 10 lead changes, the host Emory University Eagles hit a 3-pointer with eight-tenths of a second left in regulation to hand the Brandeis University men's basketball team a 70-67 defeat in University Athletic Association action today.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis: 12-12, 4-9 UAA.
• Emory: 16-8, 7-6 UAA.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Judges got off to a good start in the first half, taking an early 8-3 lead.
• Emory answered and went ahead by as many as six points midway through the stanza with a 19-13 lead.
• Brandeis rallied to take a 29-28 lead on two Quron Zene (Windsor, Conn./IMG Academy) free throws with 2:33 on the clock.
• After Emory followed with a 3-pointer and Zene's lay-up saw the game tied at 31-all, Brandeis closed the half on a 9-2 run.
• The Judges took advantage of a technical foul on the Emory bench to kickstart the streak and junior Ryan Power (Waltham, Mass./Waltham) hit a lay-up just before the buzzer to give Brandeis a 40-33 lead at the break.
• Brandeis shot 50% from the field (15-30) in the first half and had 13 assists on their 15 buckets, five coming from junior Sam Adusei (Worcester, Mass./St. George's School). Sophomore Toby Harris (Durham, N.C./Durham Academy) had 15 first-half points.
• Emory clamped down their defense to start the second half, holding Brandeis to just one field goal over the first eight-and-a-half minutes. The Eagles opened on a 16-3 run to take a 49-43 lead on a Cale Martens jumper at the 11:04 mark.
• Brandeis stayed within striking distance, however, and eventually got back in the game, tying things up at 54-all on back-to-back 3-pointers by Adusei and senior Dylan Lien (Northborough, Mass./Worcester Academy).
• After several empty possessions, Emory's Jair Knight hit four-straight free throws to re-establish the Eagles' two-possession lead, 58-54, with 5:54 to go.
• The hosts extended the lead to five on a 3-pointer by Benjamin Pearce with 3:32 left that made it 63-58.
• Brandeis bounced back on a Power jumper and a pair of Zene free throws. After Knight answered from the line, Harris hit his first 3-pointer of the second half with 2:08 on the clock to knot the game at 65.
• Emory's Mason Johnson hit a jumper with 1:44 to go, but Zene answered with two more from the charity strip to even things at 67-all with 1:16 on the clock.
• On the ensuing Emory possession, Brandeis got a stop and called timeout, but the Judges couldn't convert on a decent look from the right side.
• Emory called a timeout with 15.8 seconds left and worked the ball from in front of their bench to the far sideline. An errant pass was knocked out of bounds by a Brandeis defender, giving the Eagles the ball with 3.8 seconds left under their own basket. Pearce inbounded the ball to Mason Johnson, who pitched it back to Johnson in the corner, and he buried the game-winning trifecta.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Brandeis had four players score in double figures for the game.
• Harris led the team with 18 points but struggled in the second half when he was just 1-for-8 from the field and 1-for-5 from 3-point range, after scoring 15 in the first. He finished the game shooting 7-for-22 overall, 2-for-12 from deep.
• Lien added 17 points off the bench, going 5-for-11 from the floor, 5-for-7 from downtown, and 2-for-2 from the line. Nine of his points came in the second half.
• Zene and Power each scored 10 points.
• Zene and Harris led the Judges with seven rebounds each.
• Adusei had a terrific all-around game with seven points, six rebounds, and a game-high six assists.
• Emory's Knight had 18 points to lead the Eagles while grabbing a game-high 10 rebounds.
• Pearce added 13 points, including the game-winning shot.
• Johnson and Cale Martens also had 10 points apiece.
• Johnson and JJ Halaby had four assists each for the Eagles.
• After Brandeis had the better-shooting half in the first stanza, Emory had the edge in the second. Emory shot 52% (14-27) in the second 20 minutes, compared to 29% for Brandeis (9-31). That gave the hosts a 43% (24-56) to 39% (24-61) edge for the game.
• Brandeis hit eight 3-pointers to just four for Emory, but the Eagles had an 18-11 scoring advantage at the free-throw line, as the hosts took 10 more foul shots.
• Emory won the turnover battle, 18-12, and turned that into a 22-6 scoring edge in points off those turnovers.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

• The two games between Brandeis and Emory were decided by five points total, including a 73-71 overtime win by the Eagles in Waltham last month.
• Brandeis will need a win next week at NYU to finish the season with a winning record for the fourth season in a row under head coach Jean Bain.

UP NEXT

• Brandeis closes out the regular season at NYU on Friday evening at 6 p.m.