ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The No. 5 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team won a 54-53 thriller over the University of St. Thomas (TX) to capture the 41st Annual Lopata Classic on Saturday evening in the Field House. The Bears are now 3-0 on the year.

Sophomore Anthony Przybilla was named the MVP of the Lopata Classic after scoring 14 points on the first night against Eureka, before netting 13 points and pulling down nine rebounds in the final game. Sophomore Connor May led the Bears against the Celts with 21 points and seven rebounds.

WashU opened the night with an 8-0 run, starting with a pair of free throws from May. Senior Will Grudzinski hit a jumper and Przybilla followed with a steal and a layup. Junior Jake Davis closed out the run with a layup at 14:30.

A jumper at 13:06 from St. Thomas' Brennan Webb cut the Bears' lead to five points, 9-4, but the Bears answered with five points on another layup from Davis and a 3-pointer from junior Ryan Cohen, putting WashU ahead by 12 points, 16-4 midway through the first half.

With the Bears up by eight points at 7:27, the Celts went on a 14-point run to take a 26-20 lead with 2:45 on the clock.

After a timeout, Przybilla scored the final points of the half on an offensive putback, leaving the Bears trailing 26-22 at halftime.

Cohen drained a 3-pointer to open the second half, making it a one-point game at 26-25. The Celts went up again by five points before the Bears cut it back to one point, behind two free throws from Davis and another offensive putback from Przybilla.

St. Thomas went on a 7-0 run to take a 37-29 lead with 13:13 remaining and midway through the half, extended it to double digits. A jumper from Angel Johnson made it a 12-point game, 43-31, at 9:24.

As the clock ticked down, May made back-to-back buckets followed by three free throws. A 3-pointer from Cohen at 6:15 cut St. Thomas' lead to 43-41.

With 4:52 on the clock, May hit a 3-pointer to make it a one-point game at 45-44. Another 3-pointer at 3:54 from Przybilla swung the lead back to the Bears, 47-45.

A pair of free throws from the Celts' Reyce Allen tied the game at 47-47, but a pair of free throws from May gave the Bears the lead again with 3:31 remaining.

St. Thomas scored five straight points to go up 52-49 with just under three minutes remaining.

A free throw from May and a pair of free throws from Przybilla tied the game at 52-52 with 43 seconds remaining.

The Celts went up 53-52 with 34 seconds remaining when Nicholas Buffalo hit the back end of a pair of free throws.

May hit the game-winner with 21 seconds on the clock, and the Bears successfully defended St. Thomas' final attempt, coming away with the win.

The Bears are back in action on Monday, Nov. 24, with a 5 p.m. game against Wabash.