MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The No. 2 Washington University in St. Louis held off Colorado College on Saturday afternoon at the Rhodes Classic, beating the Tigers 69-63. The Bears are 5-0 on the season.
 
First-year Connor May hit a new career high with 19 points and eight rebounds. Senior Hayden Doyle netted 16 points and senior Drake Kindsvater had 17 points and seven rebounds.
 
The game proved to be a close one from the very first whistle as it was tied five times in the first five minutes of play.
 
Down two, Kindsvater hit a layup to tie things up at 10 and added another bucket to give the Bears the lead. Kindsvater hit a pair of free throws and May added a free throw to give WashU a small 15-10 lead with 12:58 on the clock.
 
Four-straight points from the Tigers made it a one-point, 15-14 game midway through the half but the Bears built it to six with a layup from Doyle, a free throw from Kindsvater and a 3-pointer and free throw from May.
 
WashU closed out the first half with a 5-0 run, starting with a free throw from junior Calvin Kapral. Sophomore Emmett Lawton netted a layup and May had an offensive putback to make it 29-23 game at the break.
 
Kapral opened the second half with an offensive putback. Following a Tigers' basket, junior Yogi Oliff stole the ball and put in a layup and Kindsvater scored to put the Bears ahead by double-digits. May netted a pair of free throws to give WashU a 37-25 lead with 16:19 left.
 
Nearly midway through the second half, a 3-pointer from Doyle gave the Bears a 17-point, 49-32 lead with 11:44 on the clock. The Bears maintained the double-digit lead for the next several minutes and took the biggest lead of the game – 19 points – following a 3-pointer from Mayand a free throw from sophomore George Gale to make it 62-43.
 
From there, the Tigers went on an 11-0 run with cut it to 62-54 with 3:49 remaining. Another layup from Devin Philio made it a six-point game, 65-59. After Gale hit a layup to bump it back to eight points, a jumper from Gavin Carter and a layup from Ty Hendler closed the deficit to 67-63 with 1:23 left.
 
The Bears held off the Tigers as the clock wound down and a fastbreak layup from Kindsvater with 21 seconds remaining sealed the 69-63 win.
 
As a team, WashU shot 26-for-58 and 6-for-18 from 3-point range. The Bears out-rebounded Colorado State 40-31 and had 26 points from the bench.
 
WashU takes on host team Rhodes tomorrow at 4 p.m. This will be the second time the Bears have faced Rhodes this season as they beat the Lynx 75-53 in the season opener on Friday, Nov. 8.