St. Louis, Mo. – The No. 18 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team won its seventh-straight game on Wednesday evening, defeating nearby Fontbonne 71-48.

The Bears had a strong first half, building up a quick double-digit lead over the Griffins.

The game was even in the opening minutes, as the teams exchanged baskets. After graduate student Jack Nolan tied things up at six apiece at the 16:10 mark, WashU went on a 20-0 run to build a 26-6 advantage midway through the first half. Nolan netted 13 of the Bears' 22 points during that stretch.

Following Nolan's back-to-back jumpers, senior David Windley stole the ball and laid it in. Senior Justin Hardy then scored on an offensive put back and junior Matt Gonzalo netted two free throws. Nolan put in another layup before draining two 3-pointers in a row. Nolan added another jumper and first-year Hayden Doyle closed out the run with a layup.

A 3-pointer from first-year Jake Wolf gave the Bears a 31-8 lead with 6:53 remaining in the first half.

A layup from Nolan and a 3-pointer from Windley stretched that lead to 36-12. The Bears then scored five-straight points on a layup from Windley plus a free throw and a layup from junior Kevin Davet to head into halftime up 42-21.

The Griffins came out of the break to outscore WashU 8-5, as Brent Wagner hit back-to-back 3-pointers and Anthony Jones put in a layup. That cut the Bears' lead down to 45-29 and forced a WashU timeout.

Fontbonne put up more of a fight in the second half, but the Bears continued to hold a double-digit lead. A 3-pointer and layup from Nolan pushed the Bears lead back over 20 points, sitting at 52-31 with 15:06 left to play.

A layup from Fontbonne's Caden Clark cut the Bears' lead down to 15 points, 58-43, with 9:23 left. The closest the Griffins would come to the Bears for the remainder of the game was 14 points, following an Elijah Rice jumper at the 7:25 mark, cutting WashU's lead to 59-45.

The Bears scored the final six points of the game, starting with the back end of a pair of free throws from Doyle. Jake Wolf then drained a 3-pointer and Drake Kindsvater ended things with a layup to close out the game with a 71-48 Bears' win.

Nolan led all scorers with 23 points to go with six rebounds and three steals. Davet also reached double-figures, scoring 11 points and grabbing seven rebounds. Wolf scored nine points and pulled down a team-high eight rebounds while Hardy, Doyle and Windley each finished seven points on the day.

Two Griffins scored reached double-digits, led by 12 points from Wagner and 10 points from Rice.

The Bears are now off from competition for the next 10 days and return to action on Sunday, December 19 with a 3 p.m. game against Illinois Wesleyan.