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Emory Advances to NCAA Second Round with 76-51 Victory over Covenant

Emory Advances to NCAA Second Round with 76-51 Victory over Covenant
Posted: Mar 04, 2016

From Emory University Athletics

The Emory University men's basketball team raced out to a 26-3 lead in the first half en route to a wire-to-wire 76-51 victory over Covenant College in the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball First Round on Friday night inside the Woodruff P.E. Center. With the win, the Eagles improve their 2016 overall record to 19-7. The Scots end their season with a record of 18-10. Emory now improves to a perfect 5-0 in the NCAA First Round behind a season-low opponent point total and 8-5 overall in the NCAA Tournament.

Emory will now face Birmingham Southern on Saturday night at 7:00 PM inside the WoodPEC with a berth in the Sweet 16 on the line. BSC earned a hard fought 93-91 win over LaGrange College earlier on Friday evening to advance to the second round.

Senior Will Trawick scored 17 points, all in the second half, to lead all scorers in the game and with that became the 14th member of Emory's 1,000-point club, giving him 1,001 in his career. Trawick was one of four Eagles to notch double digits as junior Austin DaGue totaled 16, sophomore Adam Gigax finished with 11 and Davis Rao poured in 10. Junior Jonathan Terry led all players with eight rebounds and sophomore Whit Rapp dished out a game-high five assists.

For Covenant, TJ Cox was the lone Scot to score over 10 points as he finished with 12 in the contest on 3-of-10 shooting. Cox added a team-best three assists. Robby Bell chipped in with nine points and Daniel Garrett finished with seven.

The Eagles held Covenant to 1-of-21 shooting (0-for-9 from beyond the arc) in the opening 14:25 as Emory built a 23 point advantage at 26-3 and never looked back. During the run, the Eagles saw five players find the score column led by Rao's seven.

"First five, 10 minutes we really set the tone defensively," Head Coach Jason Zimmerman said about the team's fast start. "We contested shots, rebounded and guarded well and didn't allow them to get many open shots."

Covenant was able to fight back into the game, cutting the lead to 33-22 with 19:06 remaining but the Eagles responded with an 11-0 spurt to go ahead 44-22 which sealed the game. Emory increased their lead to as many as 28 twice in the second half at 70-42 and 72-44 on their way to the 25 point win.