Box Score Memphis, Tenn., November 27, 2021 – The No. 18 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team defeated No. 16 Dubuque 77-59 on Saturday afternoon to open the Rhodes Thanksgiving Tournament.
Senior Justin Hardy scored a career-high 31 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out four assists to lead WashU over the Spartans. The Bears will face host-team Rhodes in the championship game tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.
WashU took a 4-1 lead in the opening minutes off layups from Kevin Davet and Hardy. A layup from Jack Nolan gave the Bears a 8-6 lead with 14:15 on the clock, but the Spartans took a lead on the next play thanks to a Jaylin McCants 3-pointer.
The teams exchanged leads several times throughout the first half before Dubuque took its first multi-point advantage of the game following a 6-0 run, causing a WashU timeout with 8:22 left.
Out of the timeout, Nolan put in a layup and Hardy netted a shot from behind the arc to give the Bears a 19-18 lead. A 3-pointer from Nolan extended that lead to 22-18 with 6:34 on the clock before the Spartans went on a run. Dubuque scored 13 unanswered points to go up 31-22 with just under four minutes left to play in the first half.
Hardy broke WashU's scoring drought with a 3-pointer and David Windley hit a shot from behind the arc to bring the Bears within three-points, 31-28, with 2:11 on the clock. Another layup from Hardy and a 3-pointer from Nolan stretched the lead to 33-31 with 32 seconds on the clock.
A Dubuque free throw cut the lead to just one but Hardy closed out the half with a buzzer-beat 3-pointer to give the Bears a 36-32 edge at the half.
The Bears came out of the break to go on a 11-4 run, which included two 3-pointers from Hardy, to go up 47-34.
WashU continued to press the Spartans and did not allow them to come closer than 10 points for the remainder of the game.
A Josh Hammer layup pulled Dubuque within 10, 52-42, with 13:01 remaining but the Bears went on to score the next seven points to take a 59-42 lead. Four of those points belonged to first-year Jake Wolf.
An and-one play from Dubuque's Peter Ragan closed the deficit back to 10 points, but Nolan quickly followed that up with a 3-pointer.
A 12-0 run from the Bears extended the lead to 75-55 with 2:42 on the clock. Hardy scored seven and Nolan scored five during the run.
The Bears shot 29-for-57 (50.9%) and 14-for-27 (51.9%) from 3-point range.
In addition to Hardy's double-double, Nolan reached double-figures with 21 points as well as four rebounds and three assists. Wolf finished with six points and five rebounds while Windley had six points and four rebounds.
Following tomorrow's game against Rhodes, the Bears return home for the 37th Annual Lopata Classic Dec. 3-4. WashU takes on Hendrix on Friday, Dec. 3 at 5:30 p.m.
