Junior Derek Becker positions himself in front of the hoop to make a two-pointer.
How will you spend your Thanksgiving break?
Men's basketball fell to UAA foe Washington University Bears 71-63 on Senior Day at Coles Sports Center this past Sunday.
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At half time, the score was 29-24, but then the two-time defending NCAA Division III champions stormed out of the gates in the second half. With 17:45 left to play, the score was 40-24.
Washington All-American guard Aaron Thompson scored three consecutive three-pointers to start the half and the Bears never looked back.
Thompson led all scorers with 25 points.
"I obviously know we can play with that team but coming back from that big of a hole is pretty tough," said senior guard Omar Meziab, who finished with 11 points.
Junior guard Derek Becker was guarding Thompson except when NYU opened up the second half in a zone defense. Violets head coach Joe Nesci was concerned that the Bears would try to push the tempo and felt the zone defense would be more effective in transition, but Thompson found open seams and ripped the game open.
Quickly, NYU switched back to man-to-man defense, and Becker contained Thompson for the remainder of the game.
"I feel like if I had been on him the whole game I could've D'ed him up," Becker said. "I don't think it was a mistake, we just needed to do a better job of [defending Thompson] as a team."
After the game, Nesci was asked if his team did a good enough job of halting the Bears' attack, a team who averages 73.7 PPG.
"Only in spots," Nesci said. "We just got caught a little late on some possessions in the zone."
After trading three-pointers for several possessions, NYU came roaring back. After back-to-back threes and a layup by Andy Stein, who led NYU with 13 points, the lead was 60-54 with 7:15 left. But the Bears' Spencer Gay capitalized on a defensive mishap by NYU and scored an uncontested layup to put his team up 66-55 with 5:26 to go. They never recovered.
The loss places NYU (15-7, 6-5 UAA) a step back from making the NCAA Division III Tournament. In order to make it, the Violets will probably have to win its last three road games.
"That would have been a huge feather in our cap," Nesci said.
NYU will be back in action on Friday, Feb. 19 when they travel to Atlanta to take on Emory University.
