By winning both games this weekend, the NYU men’s basketball team became champions of the 2012 Hamilton College Thanksgiving Tournament. The tournament was held in Utica and Clinton, N.Y. The Violets won their first-round match against the Utica College Pioneers 78-57, and they went on to defeat the Hamilton College
Continentals 69-58.
Adding to their previous victories, NYU continues their undefeated start to the season with a 4-0 record.
In the win against the Pioneers, 16 players saw time on the court and 13 scored. Six players finished with at least two assists, totaling 22 overall. Sophomore guard Adam Xu led the way with six assists while also scoring a career-high seven points in 19 minutes of play.
“Our bench provided exceptional minutes, especially our younger guys,” said junior guard and captain Ryan Tana. “They stepped in and were ready from the get-go.”
The Violets turned over the ball only 10 times, compared to the 20 turnovers NYU had given up in their season opener against the State University of New York at Geneseo.
Senior forward and captain Carl Yaffe had a strong performance, scoring 14 points on 60 percent shooting. Yaffe is shooting an outstanding 63 percent so far this season and is leading the team with 14.7 points per game.
Besides the high amount of assists, NYU scored 27 points off of Utica’s 21 turnovers. The Violets also beat Utica on both the offensive and defensive glass, outrebounding their opponents 36-30. Yaffe led the team with nine rebounds.
The Violets only relaxed their defense with 16 minutes left in the game, when they had a 12-point lead. This allowed Utica to come within two points on a 10-0 run in two minutes, but NYU went on to outscore Utica by 19 through the rest of the half.
In the final game of the tournament, NYU faced the host team, Hamilton. Even though the Violets were only up four points at the beginning of the second half, the Violets ended the game with an 11-point lead by shooting 63.2 percent in the half.
Yaffe came up big in the second game with 22 points on 62 percent shooting, and he was perfect from the free throw line. Senior forward Max Wein also scored in the double digits, finishing with 10 points.
For his performance over the weekend, Yaffe was awarded the tournament’s MVP honors. He and senior center Devin Karch, who put up 15 points against Hamilton and 13 against Utica, were the only Violets selected to the all-tournament team.
The men return to the court on Monday, Dec. 3 against New Jersey City University at the Coles Sports Center at 7 p.m.
A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Nov. 26 print edition. Francisco Navas is a staff writer. Email him at [email protected].