With its postseason fate hanging by a thread, the Case Western Reserve University men's basketball team overcame a 12-point second half deficit to defeat Carnegie Mellon University 92-83 on Saturday afternoon inside Horsburgh Gymnasium in Cleveland, Ohio.

With the win, the Spartans improve to 18-6, the most wins in program history, and 8-5 in University Athletic Association play, the most conference wins in program history. Case Western Reserve will finish second in the conference, the best finish in program history. The Tartans fall to 11-13 and 4-10 in the UAA.

Carnegie Mellon opened their largest lead of the afternoon, a 12-point advantage, on the first play of the second half. The Tartans controlled the first half, shooting 50.0% from the field and had a 45-35 lead at the break.

Junior forward Cole Frilling responded to the Tartan basket with a pair of three-pointers on back-to-back possessions to start an 11-0 Spartan run and cut the deficit to one. The Tartans again pushed the advantage to six, but a three-point play and layup from senior forward Ryan Newton gave the hosts their first advantage since early in the first half, 58-54.

Frilling led the Spartans with 23 points off the bench on eight-for-13 (61.5%) from the field and a perfect five-of-five from three-point range. Of his 23 points, 19 came in the second half. Frilling added four rebounds and two steals.

After a Tartan layup, senior guard Robert Faller made a three-pointer to give the Spartans a five-point lead, 61-56, with just over 12 minutes to play. Frilling gave CWRU a 13-point advantage midway through the second half with a layup and two three-pointers on three straight possessions. A jumper from Faller with four minutes to play gave Case Western Reserve a 17-point advantage, 81-64, the team's largest lead of the afternoon.

Carnegie Mellon cut the CWRU lead to nine, 83-74, with a 10-2 run with 1:51 remaining in regulation. However, the Spartans held off the Tartans to clinch the win.

On the Spartans first basket of the game, a three-pointer from Newton, graduate guard Griffin Kornaker broke the school record for assists in a season. He finished the game with 11 assists, his fifth game of 10 or more assists this season, and has 156 assists on the year. The previous record was 145, set by Jim Fox in the 1996-97 season. Kornaker filled the stat sheet with seven points, six rebounds, and three steals.  

Graduate guard Mitch Prendergast added 21 points on seven-of-13 (53.8%) from the field. Newton finished with 16 points, and Faller added 12 points and a team-leading seven rebounds.

Prior to the game, the Spartans honored their five graduating players, Newton, Faller, Kornaker, Prendergast, and graduate forward Brian Hines, as part of 'Senior Day.'

The game was the last of the regular season for Case Western Reserve, and the team's last chance to make its case to earn one of the 20 at-large selections to the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship. The field will be announced on Monday, February 28 at 12:30 p.m. More information will be available on athletics.case.edu.