Men’s basketball split their slate of games this weekend against UAA competition. The team traveled first to Atlanta to face the Emory University Eagles on Feb. 21. The Violets were outscored by 11 points in the first half and fell by a final score of 86-77.
While the Violets faced a large deficit, the team stayed in the game and cut the Eagles’ lead to four with five minutes remaining in the game. CAS senior guard Ryan Tana dropped 31 points in the game, which is the highest total of his career. The Violets also saw contributions from LS sophomore forward Evan Kupferberg and SCPS sophomore center Costis Gontikas, who chipped in 15 and 13 points, respectively.
The team looked to bounce back against the University of Rochester Yellowjackets as they traveled upstate on Feb. 23. Despite a two-point deficit at halftime, the Violets dominated the second half and defeated their hosts by a score of 81-64.
Tana once again led the team in scoring with 24 points. He also chipped in three assists and picked up two steals. Kupferberg scored 16 and Gontikas scored 15 to help Tana lead the Violets to the victory and improve their record to 16-8.
Gontikas addressed the dichotomy in the team’s performance in the last two games.
“There was some technical stuff that we didn’t work well on [at Emory],” he said. “But [at Rochester] we really did a good job executing within our offense.”
Women’s basketball also played against Emory and Rochester this weekend. Like the men’s team, the women had their own career performance in Atlanta.
CAS freshman guard Kaitlyn Read recorded a double-double by putting up a career high 26 points and a staggering 17 rebounds. Read cleared 14 defensive rebounds, which prevented the Eagles from getting many second-chance opportunities on offense. CAS sophomore forward and co-captain Megan Dawe also scored in the double figures with 19 points. The Violets defeated Emory by a score of 82-73.
The team’s fortunes changed for the worse against Rochester. Despite a six-point lead at halftime, the Violets were outplayed by the Yellowjackets in the second half and fell by a score of 71-62.
Dawe led the scoring attack for the Violets with 19 points and Read registered another double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, but the Yellowjackets out-rebounded the Violets 55-33 overall, which contributed to the loss. Dawe said the team is talented enough to beat tough teams in the future.
“This team has the drive to continue to play hard through anything,” Dawe said. “It unfortunately just wasn’t the outcome we wanted against Rochester.”
The team’s record now stands at 19-5 after losing three out of four games and dropping out of the NCAA Top 25 rankings. Dawe is looking forward to the next competition.
“Going into the final week of conference, we are just going to use that fire and competitiveness to get one more win against Brandeis on their home floor,” she said.
A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Feb. 24 print edition. Chris Marcotrigiano is a deputy sports editor. Email him at [email protected].