St. Louis, Mo. – The No. 23 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team used a strong second half to defeat Eureka, 87-70, in the 38^th Annual Lopata Classic.
 
Two Bears had career days, as graduate student Charlie Jacob netted 24 points of 9-for-15 shooting and 4-for-6 from 3-point range in addition to dishing out three assists. First-year Will Grudzinski hit seven 3-pointers en route to his career-high 23 points to go with five rebounds.
 
The first half featured a lot of back-and-forth action, with neither team taking more than a four-point lead until the 10:54 mark.
 
The Bears went on a 15-0 run, starting with a layup from senior Kevin Davet at 12:27. Senior Nate Bloedorn hit a pair of free throws and Grudzinski drained a shot from distance to put WashU up 22-16.
 
Sophomore Drake Kindsvater hit a jumper and Bloedorn laid one in to put the Bears up 26-16 at the 9:53 mark. Kindsvater then slammed one home and Bloedorn hit a jumper to extend WashU's lead to 14 points with just over nine minutes remaining.
 
With the Bears up 13 points with 6:56 left in the first half, Eureka went on a 10-0 run of its own, cutting WashU's lead down to just three points, 34-31, with 4:48 left.
 
With 58 seconds remaining, Jacob netted a 3-pointer to put the Bears back up by six points, but Eureka's Cody Baer scored the final four points of the half to send the teams into halftime with WashU up 43-41.
 
Jacob showed his offensive prowess to open the second half, scoring the first 12 points of the half for WashU, including a pair of 3-pointers. That put the Bears up 55-43 with 15:22 on the clock.
 
Eureka cut it down to an eight-point deficit with 13:31 remaining, but Grudzinski quickly drained a 3-pointer to push it back to double-digits. The Red Devils cut WashU's lead down to nine points, 77-68, with just over five minutes left, but another 3-pointer from Grudzinski gave the Bears an 80-68 edge. From there, WashU maintained a double-digit lead for the rest of the game en route to the eventual 17-point win.
 
In addition to Jacob and Grudzinski, Kindsvater also reached double-figures with 16 points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks. Sophomore Jake Wolf led the Bears with seven rebounds to go with five points. Sophomore Hayden Doyle dished out a team-high six assists, matching his career number.
 
For Eureka, Baer led all scorers with 28 points and 13 rebounds.
 
The Bears will play for the Lopata Classic championship tomorrow at 7 p.m. against (RV) Pomona-Pitzer.