Men’s Basketball
On Sunday, Feb. 18, the Carnegie Mellon men’s basketball team hosted Emory for their Senior Day game, their last home game of the season.
The Tartans held their largest lead of the game with 11:14 left in the first quarter when they led the Eagles by eight points, 16-8. Emory tied it up three minutes later at 19-all, and then took the lead with a three-pointer, making it 24-21. The lead changed hands a couple of times before the end of the half, and the Tartans ended up behind 31-30.
The Tartans would continue trailing Emory until 8:14 was left in the game, when senior Jack Stone sank a three-pointer to make it 51-48 in favor of the Tartans. Emory would come back and lead by five, but the Tartans managed to tie it back up at 66-all with less than a minute left. Both teams recorded two more points from free throws, and in the last seconds of the game, Stone sank another three-points to give the Tartans a 71-68 win over Emory.
On Saturday, Feb. 24, the Tartans had their last regular season game when they traveled to 12th-ranked Case Western Reserve University. The Tartans kept pace with the Spartans and the game was tied eight-all four minutes into play. However, the Spartans pulled ahead and made it 22-12 with 11:29 left in play. Case Western Reserve continued to have a strong offensive game, and led by 12 with 1:24 left in the half. Two Tartan three-pointers cut the Spartans’ lead in half, but the Tartans were still behind going into the half, 42-36.
Over the first three minutes of the second half, the Tartans put eight more on the board, and were able to tie it at 44-all. The Tartans were able to take the lead back shortly after, 50-49. The Spartans responded to this with a 13-2 run with 10 minutes in the game, making it 62-52. The Tartans would later go on a 14-3 run to tie the game back up, this time 71-all. Case Western Reserve broke the tie and pulled ahead 76-73, and the Tartans got a last second two-pointer that left them just short of the win, 76-75.
The Tartans finished this season 16-9 overall and 8-6 in conference play. The men’s basketball team will find out Monday afternoon if they will be continuing to postseason play.
Women’s Basketball
On Feb. 18, the Carnegie Mellon women’s basketball team hosted Emory for their last home game, which they celebrated as Senior Day.
The Tartans were the first on the board thanks to a two-pointer from senior Megan Matsko. Carnegie Mellon and Emory traded points, and Emory won out and took a 13-11 lead with 2:16 left in the first quarter. The Tartans trailed 15-14 going into the second quarter, and continued to trail the Eagles. The Tartans held a brief 24-22 lead with 4:17 left in the half, but by halftime, the Tartans were behind 30-24 after an 8-0 run by Emory. The Tartans weren’t going to regain the lead for the rest of the game and were outscored in the third and fourth quarters, 21-14 and 21-16, respectively, falling 72-54 overall.
For their last game of the season, the Tartans headed to Cleveland to take on the Case Western Reserve Spartans.
The Tartans had a strong start, leading by as much as five points in the first quarter, but ended up behind when the clock hit zero for the first time, 18-15 after a 10-2 run from the Spartans. The Tartans were able to tie it up at 18 at the beginning of the second quarter, but an 11-point Spartan run put the Tartans behind yet again. Heading into halftime, the Tartans trailed the Spartans 44-24. The third quarter was low-scoring, as Carnegie Mellon recorded 11 points and Case Western Reserve recorded 12; neither team shot at higher than 30 percent accuracy this quarter. Though the Tartans outscored Case Western Reserve 17-7 in the last quarter, this wasn’t enough for a Tartan lead, and Carnegie Mellon fell 63-52.
These losses put the women’s basketball team at 11-14 overall for the season and 3-11 in conference play.
Men’s Tennis
On Saturday, Feb. 24, the Carnegie Mellon men’s tennis team took on Duquesne University at the Alpha Tennis and Fitness club of Pittsburgh.
In first doubles, the team of second-year Akshay Joshi and senior Derek Wong earned a point for the Tartans after going 6-4. The team of first-years Daniel Kong and Raghav Jangbahadur earned the second point for the Tartans in the second spot, allowing the Tartans to head into singles play 2-1. In the second singles spot, senior Nadim Motaghedi went 6-1, 2-6, 6-1 over his opponent to earn another point for the Tartans. In third singles, senior Nicholas Wernink went 7-6, 1-0 before his opponent retired for the fourth Tartans point. The Tartans, however, were unable to secure a fifth point, and fell 5-4 to the Dukes.
This loss has put the Tartans at 1-4 for spring play this season. Their next match is against Stevens Institute of Technology on Friday, March 1 at Swarthmore College.
Women’s Tennis
On Sunday, Feb. 18, the 10th-ranked Tartans headed to the College of Wooster to take on the College of Wooster and Otterbein University.
In the match against the College of Wooster, the Tartans swept doubles. The team of fifth-year Danna Taylor and second-year Anna Chow won 8-4 in the first spot. In the second spot, a score of 8-2 from second-year Divya Venkatarama earned the Tartans their second point. The efforts of second-year Anika Joshi and third-year Simran Bedi earned the Tartans their third point, 8-4. Singles play was a similar story. Highlights include third-year Zoe Angell in the fourth spot going 6-0, 6-0 and first-year Ainika Hou in the sixth spot going 6-0, 6-1. The combined efforts of the Tartans gave them a 9-0 win over the Fighting Scots.
Against Otterbein, the Tartans also recorded a sweep. The team of Taylor and Chow went 8-2 in the first spot, Angell and Vekatarama went 8-0 in the second spot, and Josh and first-year Elaine Qian went 8-2 in the third spot. Singles play was a similar story; the Tartans earned all six singles points and swept Otterbein 9-0.
On Saturday, Feb. 24, the Tartans hosted 17th-ranked Case Western Reserve University. The Tartans headed into singles play behind, with the only doubles point coming from Joshi and Qian, who went 8-5. However, the Tartans were able to turn it around and recorded wins in the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth spots, going 6-3 overall and winning the contest.
These wins have put the Tartans at 5-1 during the spring season. They will next be competing in their 15th straight ITA National Team Indoor Championship starting on Friday, Mar. 1 against the top-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
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