CLEVELAND, Ohio – The No. 19 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team defeated Case Western Reserve University 86-68 on Friday evening on the road. The Bears are now 16-5 overall with a 6-4 mark in UAA play.
 
WashU was led by first-year Connor May who scored a career-high 22 points to go with six rebounds. Senior Hayden Doyle put up 16 points, dished out nine assists and pulled down seven rebounds. Senior Drake Kindsvater scored 14 points and had three rebounds while junior Will Grudzinski scored 12 points and had eight boards.
 
In the opening minutes of play, the lead changed four times and the score was tied at 6-6 and 8-8. After a jumper from May tied the game at eight apiece, he drilled a shot from distance to give the Bears an 11-8 edge. May then hit a pair of free throws to put the Bears ahead 13-8 with 10:54 on the clock.
 
Following three 3-pointers, CWRU went on to tie the game at 19. WashU went up a bucket on a Kindsvater layup but the Spartans' Sam Trunley hit three free throws for a one-point edge.
 
Down one, Doyle hit a layup and then Grudzinski drained a 3-pointer after a steal by junior Calvin Kapral. Kapral had an offensive putback at the 4:53 mark to give the Bears a 28-22 lead.
 
The Spartans made it a one-point game with 56 seconds remaining, sending the Bears into the half with a 32-31 advantage.
 
CWRU came out of the break to score the first buck, but sophomore Ryan Cohen hit a 3-pointer and Kindsvater netted a layup for a 39-33 lead at 17:20.
 
The Bears started to widen their lead with a 3-pointer from Doyle at 15:23. May followed with his own 3-pointer and sophomore Jake Davis put in a jumper in the paint, giving WashU it's first double-digit lead of the game, 49-38, at 13:42.
 
Following a 3-pointer from the Spartans, Doyle and May put in back-to-back layups and sophomore Emmett Lawton drilled a shot from distance to put the Bears up 56-41 at 11:06.
 
CWRU put in a pair of free throws, followed by a layup from Doyle. CWRU hit a jumper and Kindsvater answered with a 3-pointer for a 61-45 lead at 9:22.
 
Following another Spartans' jumper, Kindsvater hit another 3-pointer and Grudzinski added a shot from distance, putting the Bears up 20 points, 67-47 with 7:46 on the clock.
 
After the Spartans brought it down to a 17-point difference, Grudzinski made it 20 again with a 3-pointer at 5:55.
 
Five-straight points from CWRU cut the deficit to 77-62 with just over three minutes left to play but a pair of free throws from Doyle and a 3-pointer from Grudzinski extended it to 82-62 with 2:00 left.
 
A layup from May with 38 seconds remaining gave the Bears a 21-point lead, their largest of the game. CWRU hit a 3-pointer with 29 seconds remaining, ending the game with the 86-68 WashU win.
 
As a team, the Bears edged the Spartans 47-35 on the boards. WashU shot 31-for-63 (49.2%) and 12-for-35 (34.3%) from 3-point range.
 
WashU makes the short trip to Pittsburgh now for a Sunday game against Carnegie Mellon at 2 p.m. ET.