St. Louis, Mo. – The No. 22 Washington University in St. Louis women's basketball team fell to Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) 61-57 on Friday evening at the Field House. The Bears are now 16-7 overall with a 9-3 mark in UAA play.
 
Senior Maya Arnott and junior Jessica Brooks each finished with a double-double in the loss. Brooks netted 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds while Arnott had 14 points and 15 rebounds. First-year Nailah McBeth scored a career-high 13 points.
 
CWRU's Isabella Mills proved to be an electric presence for the Spartans, leading all scorers with 27 points and 16 rebounds.
 
The Spartans opened the game with a quick 4-0 lead but the Bears tied it up just as quickly with layups from senior Naomi Jackson and Arnott.
 
The game was tied twice more in the first quarter, at 8-8 and 10-10.
 
CWRU broke the tie with a 3-pointer from Lucy Vanderbeck but the Bears scored six-straight behind buckets from Arnott and sophomore Brenna Loftus and a 3-pointer from Jackson, taking a 17-13 lead. A layup from Mills with 18 seconds left put the Bears up two points at the buzzer.
 
Brooks opened the second quarter with a layup to extend the Bears' lead back to four points, but the Spartans took a 20-19 edge following five-straight points.
 
Things were knotted at 23 midway through the second quarter. A 3-pointer from Mills put the Spartans up three and they would hold a slight lead until the final minute when Brooks and McBeth each netted a layup to take a 31-30 lead at the half.
 
The third quarter remained scoreless for the first 4:44 until a layup from CWRU's Kayla Characklis ended the scoring draught and tied things up at 31.
 
Down 33-31 with 3:36 on the clock, the Spartans closed out the third quarter on a 13-0 run to take a 44-33 lead heading into the final 10 minutes.
 
WashU opened the fourth quarter with a run of its own, scoring seven straight points to pull within four. McBeth delivered back-to-back layups, followed by an Arnott bucket and a Brooks' free throw.
 
Another layup from McBeth closed the deficit to two points, 46-44, before back-to-back Spartans' 3-pointers extended their lead to 52-44.
 
A jumper from Loftus and a layup from Brooks pulled the Bears within two points, 55-53, with 46 seconds on the clock. WashU had a chance to tie things up with Brooks at the line for two, but both shots missed.
 
From there, the Spartans built us as much as a six point lead en route to the 61-57 win.
 
WashU will look to bounce back on Sunday with a game against Carnegie Mellon at 2 p.m. Prior to the game, the Bears will honor their seniors – Arnott, Molly Gannon, Karisa Grandison, Jackson, Ingrid Keane and Sammi Matoush.