New York, N.Y. - Travis Curley (Trumbull, Conn.) saw his game-winning three-point attempt from 70-feet graze the front of the rim and bounce away and host New York University escaped with a 69-67 win over Clark University in the final game of the 2012 NYU Holiday Classic on Sunday evening.

The Violets' Ryan Tana made his first free throw with 3.7 seconds left but couldn't connect on his second and the rebound went to Curley in the corner. He took a few dribbles and launched an unorthodox two-handed over-the-head attempt that fell just short as time expired, giving NYU their eighth win in nine games this season.

Clark, meanwhile, slips to 6-5 overall despite another valiant individual effort from Brian Vayda (Sturbridge, Mass.) who led all scorers with 28 points, seven rebounds and four assists.

The Cougars found themselves down 50-39 a little more than seven minutes into the second half after Carl Jaffe went on a personal 8-0 run for NYU.

Vayda had an answer however, as he scored eight in a 10-0 Clark run that brought the Cougars to within one with less than ten minutes to play.

The Violets never relinquished the lead and were ahead by four after Kyle Stockmal made all three free throws after being fouled behind the arc.

Curley, who shot 5-for-10 from behind the arc during the two games in the Classic,  connected on a rightside three-pointer to made the score 68-67 with less than four seconds left.

NYU shot exceptionally well in the second half, shooting 50 percent from the field (11-for-22) and 87 percent from the free throw line (13-for-15) to help stave off the Clark comeback.

The Cougars took amazing care of the ball, committing just three turnovers in the entire game – one in the final 20 minutes.

In addition to Vayda's strong performance – which landed him on the All-Classic Team – Clark got eight points apiece from D.J. Bailey (Palmer, Mass.) and Marcus Armstrong (Malden, Mass.) and seven each from Tyler Veretto (South Windsor, Conn.) and Jonathan Phillips (Shrewsbury, Mass.).

Clark will be back in action on Tuesday, January 8 when they host Babson College at 4:00 p.m.