ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The No. 5 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team dropped the UAA opener to the University of Chicago, 71-66, on Sunday afternoon to open conference play.
 
Senior Drake Kindsvater led all scorers with 23 points to go with five rebounds, four steals and a block. Senior Hayden Doyle netted 13 points and grabbed five rebounds while sophomore Jake Davis and junior Will Grudzinski each had seven points.
 
After the game was postponed from Saturday, the Bears had a slow start, falling behind 10-0 in the first 3:30. Davis broke the dry spell with a free throw at 15:31 and sophomore Lucas Vogel put in the Bears' first bucket at 14:58. An offensive putback from first-year Connor May made it a 10-5 game at 14:13.
 
An up-and-down game in the first half, the Bears closed the difference to five points twice, the fewest of the half. A layup from Doyle at 11:36 made it 12-7 and a pair of free throws at 9:21 from Kindsvater made it a five-point, 18-13 game.
 
Five-straight points from the Maroons gave them a double-digit lead of 26-15 with just under five minutes remaining in the first half. Chicago remained ahead by double digits until a pair of free throws from Kindsvater at 3:11 made it an eight-point game. Another layup from Kindsvater closed the gap to 30-24 with 2:06 remaining in the first half.
 
A pair of free throws from Kindsvater and a layup from Grudzinski sent WashU into the half trailing 34-28.
 
The Bears opened the second half how they closed the previous half, as Grudzinski laid one in following a steal from sophomore Ryan Cohen, cutting it to a four-point game.
 
The teams continued to exchange baskets over the next few minutes, with Chicago remaining in the lead. A 3-pointer from Chicago's Thomas Kurowski at 15:48 bumped the Maroons' lead to 46-38.
 
The Bears came up with two big defensive stops and offensive scores in a row. At 13:49, May stole the ball and scored. Kindsvater followed with another steal and layup to cut the game to 48-44.
 
A pair of free throws and a 3-pointer from the Maroons made it a nine-point game again, 53-44, but the Bears scored four-straight on a 3-pointer from Cohen and a free throw from Kindsvater.
 
With the Bears trailing just four points at the 7:45 mark, Chicago scored seven points in a row to go up by double digits again, 62-51, which 6:06 remaining.
 
WashU followed with an 8-0 run, starting with a 3-pointer from Doyle. Kindsvater hit the backend of a pair of free throws while May and sophomore George Gale put in back-to-back buckets to make it a three-point, 62-59 game with 3:27 on the clock.
 
The Maroons brought their lead back to eight points but a jumper from Kindsvater, a layup from Doyle and a free throw from Gale brought it back down to three, 67-64, with 42 seconds left.
 
Down seven, WashU hit the final two points of the game, a pair of free throws from Doyle.
 
The teams were even with 33 rebounds apiece while WashU had 10 turnovers and Chicago had 11. The Bears shot 24-for-57 (42.1%) from the floor and 4-for-16 from 3-point range.
 
WashU is back home for a pair of games next weekend, starting with a Friday evening game against Case Western Reserve University at 5:30, which will serve as Campers Day. On Sunday, the Bears take on Carnegie Mellon at 1 p.m.