St. Louis, Mo. – The (RV) Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team started UAA play with a 71-54 win over the University of Chicago on Saturday afternoon.
 
Sophomore Drake Kindsvater led the Bears in the win with 18 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Sophomore Hayden Doyle scored 13 points with seven rebounds while graduate Charlie Jacob netted 11 points.
 
Jacob hit a jumper and senior Nate Bloedorn stole the ball and laid it in to give WashU a 6-3 edge to start the game. Chicago then went on a 9-0 run to take a 12-6 lead with 14:16 on the clock.
 
The Bears scored seven-straight behind five points from Jacob, a 3-pointer from first-year Will Grudzinski and a jumper from sophomore Jake Wolf. Another bucket from Grudzinki gave the Bears a 18-17 lead, the first Bears' lead since the 15:13 mark.
 
The Maroons went up 24-20 but the Bears went on a 10-0 run to take a 30-24 lead. Senior Kevin Davet put in a layup, was fouled and hit the ensuing free throw to start the run, followed up a jumper from Doyle and a layup from Kindsvater. Doyle netted another layup and Wolf hit the backend of a pair of free throws to go up six.
 
With 42 seconds remaining in the first half, Chicago's Bryce Hopkins netted a jumper to put the Maroons ahead 35-34 and a pair of free throws from Joe Berry extended the lead to 37-34. First-year Yogi Oliff netted two free throws to send the Bears into the break trailing just one point, 37-36.
 
The teams opened up the second half exchanging points until 17:53 when the Bears started a 10-0 run to go up 48-38 with 14:31 on the clock. Kindsvater started the run with a jumper and the backend of a pair of free throws. Doyle drilled a shot from distance and Kindsvater and Bloedorn each laid on in to close out the run.
 
Chicago brought the gap down to seven points but a jumper from Doyle and a layup from Bloedorn put the Bears up by double-digits. Another three points extended WashU's lead to 55-41 with 10:48 left.
 
The Maroons knocked the difference down to 10 points a handful of times, including with 5:57 left, but that is the closest they would come for the remainder of the game. WashU kept a steady lead of at least 12 points and a 3-pointer from Kindsvater with 1:43 remaining gave the Bears their biggest lead of the game, 17 points, which held until the end.
 
WashU went 4-for-9 (44.4%) from 3-point range and 15-for-19 (78.9%) from the free throw line. The Bears out-rebounding Chicago 34-22 and forced 13 Maroons' turnovers.
 
WashU continues UAA play next weekend with a 7:30 p.m. game against Brandeis on Friday evening and a 12 p.m. game against NYU on Sunday.