St. Louis, Mo. – First-year Lucas Vogel poured in a career-high 23 points on Sunday afternoon as the No. 17 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team defeated Principia 90-56. The Bears improve to 9-1 with one more game left in 2023.
 
In addition to Vogel's double-digit performance, junior Hayden Doyle netted 11 points with five rebounds and junior Drake Kindsvater added 10 points. Sophomore Yogi Oliff scored six points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out three assists and had two steals. First-year Ryan Cohen scored nine points on 3-for-4 shooting from distance.
 
WashU opened up the game with a 7-0 run to set the tone for the rest of regulation.
 
Kindsvater started things off with a 3-pointer following a steal from Oliff. Kindsvater then stole the ball and laid it in and Oliff netted a layup to give the Bears a seven-point edge in the first three minutes.
 
Principia went on to score six-straight to make it a 7-6 game at the 14:06 mark. The Panthers ultimately tied the game at 12 with 11:27 on the clock following two 3-pointers from AJ Byrd.
 
WashU answered with an 11-0 run to go up 23-12 with 7:59 remaining in the first half.
 
First-year Ryan Cohen drilled a shot from distance to start the run and Doyle followed with another 3-pointer. Kindsvater netted the Bears' third-straight 3-pointer for the 11-point lead.
 
A Principia 3-pointer at the 5:50 mark cut it down to a 10-point, 27-17, game but another five-straight points from the Bears extended the lead. Senior Jabari Chiphe had an offensive putback and Doyle drained a shot from behind the arc to put the Bears ahead 32-17.
 
WashU continued to hold onto a lead of at least 12 points and a layup from sophomore Will Grudzinski at the buzzer sent the Bears into the break with a 43-25 advantage.
 
The Panthers started the second half with a 3-pointer from Charley Hoffman but the Bears followed with an 11-0 run.
 
Doyle hit a 3-pointer and sophomore Calvin Kapral had an offensive putback. Oliff stole the ball and laid in a fastbreak and then grabbed a defensive rebound and scored another fastbreak layup. Doyle closed out the run with a layup following a Kyle Beedon steal to give the Bears a 26-point, 54-28 lead with 16:27 on the clock.
 
Back-to-back Principia 3-pointers made it a 56-39 game with 13:14 remaining and an and-one play from Bobby Alford dropped the Bears' lead to 16 points, 58-42.
 
That would be as close as the Panthers would come to the Bears, however, as WashU continued to extend its lead in the remaining minutes behind 14 points from Vogel as the clock ticked down.
 
First-years Emmett Lawton, Cohen and Beza Miller also had the hot hand from behind the arc, combining for four 3-pointers in the final 11 minutes of play.
 
The Bears shot 37-for-77 (48.1%) and 14-for-42 (33.3%) from 3-point range.
 
WashU is off from competition until Dec. 30 when the Bears host Wabash at 3 p.m. for the final game of the calendar year.