Carlinville, Ill., November 20, 2021 – The No. 18 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team defeated Blackburn, 90-59, on Saturday afternoon and are now 2-1 on the season.

It was a slow start for the Bears who trailed Blackburn until the final seven minutes of the first half, but a 9-0 run put WashU ahead heading into the break.

Things started out even following Kevin Davet's game-opening layup and Blackburn took its first lead six minutes in on a Payton Krager jumper. A David Windley 3-pointer closed the gap to one point but the Beavers' Jarrius Burnett hit back-to-back 3-pointers to take a 14-7 lead with 12:15 remaining.

A pair of free throws from Davet with 8:39 on the clock brought the Bears within two points and another free throw from Charlie Jacob closed it back to one point before WashU went on its 9-0 run.

Davet started the run with a layup and followed that up with a dunk to give WashU a 23-22 lead with 6:51 left. Kameron Mack added a layup and Jacob drained a 3-pointer, extending the Bears' lead to 28-22 and forcing a Blackburn timeout.

WashU went on another 7-0 run, starting with a layup from Jacob. Jake Wolf laid one in and Matt Gonzalo hit a shot from behind the arc to give WashU a double-digit lead with 3:10 remaining.

Following another Blackburn timeout, the Bears continued to put pressure on the Beavers. Justin Hardy scored the final bucket of the half to put WashU up 44-30 at the break.

Davet hit the back end of a pair of free throws to open the second half. Layups from Hayden Doyle and Davet gave WashU a 49-32 advantage with 17:13 on the clock.

Blackburn's Izayah Talmadge added five points for the Beavers to bring it back to a 10-point deficit but WashU went on to score the next 10 points of the game to stretch the lead to 59-39.

Wolf started the run with a layup followed by a Gonzalo bucket and a layup and jumper from Jack Nolan. Gonzalo closed out the run with another layup, forcing a timeout from Blackburn.

Windley hit a 3-pointer followed by a pair of free throws from Davet, extending the Bears' lead to 64-41 with 10:10 on the clock.

WashU then went on an 8-0 run, starting with a Wolf layup before Nolan drilled back-to-back 3-pointers, pushing the Bears' edge to 72-44.

The Bears added five-straight points behind a three-point play from Mack and a layup from Spencer Boehm.

Blackburn went on its own 8-0 run in the final minutes of the game, but WashU came away with the 90-59 win.

Nolan led all scorers with 16 points, including four 3-pointers and also had three steals. Davet also reached double-digits with 13 points and eight rebounds. Hardy, Jacob, Mack and Wolf each had eight points to end the day.

Four players from Blackburn reached double-figures, led by Burnett and Talmadge with 11 points apiece.

The Bears are back in action on Tuesday, November 23 with a home game against Webster at 7 p.m.