From University of Chicago Athletics
A career-best performance from junior forward Ryan Jacobsen proved crucial for the University of Chicago men's basketball team in a narrow 66-64 road victory at Carnegie Mellon University on Friday night.
The Maroons (7-8 overall, 3-1 UAA) won their third-straight game in the University Athletic Association. The Tartans dropped to 4-11 overall and 0-4 in conference.
Points were exchanged back-and-forth for the opening 10 minutes of the game. But a layup and foul produced a three-point play for Jacobsen, and the Maroons snatched a 14-13 lead. Two treys by junior guard Noah Karras and another Jacobsen layup put the visitors up 22-13.
Jacobsen stayed hot all half, closing out the period by scoring the final six points for his team in the paint. CMU couldn't contain the junior as he made all seven of his field goal attempts for 15 points while pulling in six rebounds. Karras added eight points to help stake UChicago to a 33-26 halftime advantage. The Maroon defense held the Tartans to 30.3 percent shooting from the field in the half.
A quick six points by CMU cut the deficit to a single point two minutes into the second half. Jacobsen maintained his hot shooting with a layup, an and-one layup and a three-pointer to keep the Maroons ahead at 46-40. By that time, Jacobsen was responsible for half his team's points (23).
CMU kept whittling away, however, and eventually tied the score at 55-55. Senior guard Jake Fenlon quickly broke the stalemate with a dunk and a free throw after being fouled on the play. Yet another Jacobsen and-one layup stretched the lead back out to 64-57 with two minutes remaining.
The Tartans remained pesky and forced a turnover trailing 64-61. But the home side missed the transition layup, which allowed senior forward Collin Barthel to snag the rebound and throw it to a teammate before falling out of bounds. Fenlon was subsequently fouled and made two free throws at 66-61 with 31 seconds left.
CMU scored a three-point play of its own and had the ball in the final seconds down by two. That's when sophomore point guard Jordan Baum stepped up, stole the ball on a CMU drive in the lane and threw an outlet to Jacobsen to end the game, 66-64.
Jacobsen's 28 points and 14 rebounds were both new career highs. He shot 12 of 15 overall from the field (80 percent). Karras recorded 11 points.
UChicago shot 41.3 percent on field goals, 35 percent on threes (7-20) and 41.2 percent on free throws (7-17). CMU was limited to 37.1 percent shooting from the field and 28.6 percent from beyond the arc (4-14).
The Maroons led rebounding 46-38, while the Tartans held a 14-8 edge in turnovers.