Waltham, Mass. – The No. 16 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team edged Brandeis, 56-52, on Friday evening on the road. The Bears are 17-4 overall with an 8-2 mark in the UAA and sit in first place in the conference standings.
 
Four players reached double figures in the win, led by a double-double of 10 points and 14 rebounds from sophomore Drake Kindsvater. Graduate Charlie Jacob netted 12 points while sophomore Hayden Doyle and first-year Will Grudzinski each scored 11 points.
 
The game proved to be evenly matched from the start, tied four times in the first half.
 
After a layup from sophomore Jake Wolf at 16:28 tied things up 7-7, Brandeis scored the next five points to go up 12-7. Following a Bears' timeout, Grudzinski hit a 3-pointer, Kindsvater hit the front end of a pair of free throws and Jacob hit a jumper to take a 13-12 edge at 12:37.
 
Tied again at 14 apiece, Brandeis scored four-straight to take a slight 18-14 lead but a layup from Doyle, a free throw from Jacob and a layup from first-year Calvin Kapral put the Bears up one.
 
The Judges scored six-straight to go up 24-19 with just under four minutes remaining in the first half. A layup from Doyle with 1:14 left was the final basket of the half, sending WashU into halftime trailing Brandeis 27-24.
 
A 6-0 run from Brandeis in the opening minutes of the second half put the Judges up by 10 points, 35-25.
 
Still down 10 with 11:16 on the clock, the Bears started chipping away. Back-to-back jumpers from Kindsvater and Grudzinski closed it to a six-point gap.
 
Following another Judges' basket, junior Jabari Chiphe netted back-to-back layups and Grudzinski hit a 3-pointer to bring the Bears within one. Doyle then hit a jumper to give WashU a 42-41 edge with 6:56 on the clock.
 
Brandeis briefly took the lead but Jacob quickly hit another 3-pointer followed by Kindsvater and Doyle layups, giving WashU a 49-43 lead.
 
The Judges brought the Bears lead down to one point several times, including with 27 seconds remaining.
 
Jacob hit four free throws in the final 20 seconds to hold off Brandeis en route to the win.
 
WashU edged Brandeis 39-36 on the boards and forced 14 Judges' turnovers.
 
The Bears are back in action on Sunday with a 12 p.m. ET game at NYU.