PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The No. 19 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team defeated Carnegie Mellon 78-54 on Sunday afternoon. The Bears are now 17-5 on the season with a 7-4 mark in UAA play.
 
Senior Drake Kindsvater posted his fourth double-double of the season, scoring 19 points and grabbing 13 rebounds to go with four steals. First-year Connor May also recorded a double-double, his second the year, with 13 points and 10 rebounds as well as four assists. Senior Hayden Doyle scored 13 points and grabbed six boards while sophomore Ryan Cohen scored 11 points and had four rebounds.
 
In the opening minutes of the game, the teams exchanged points and the lead six different times. With the game tied at 9-9, Kindsvater hit a pair of free throws to give the Bears a two-point, 11-9 lead at 15:01.
 
Carnegie Mellon netted nine-straight points over the next six minutes for an 18-11 lead with 9:10 on the clock.
 
WashU followed with five points in a row, starting with a layup from Kindsvater. Junior Calvin Kapral put in a layup and Kindsvater hit the backend of a pair of free throws for cut the Tartans' lead to 18-16 at 7:46.
 
Down four, May grabbed an offensive board and drilled a shot from distance to make it a one-point game with CMU up 20-19 at 6:42.
 
The Tartans scored five-straight points for a six-point edge before Kindsvater scored the final eight points of the game for the Bears. First, he slammed one home on an assist from May. Then Kindsvater hit a pair of free throws and a layup, which tied the game at 25 apiece with 49 seconds remaining in the first half and closed out the half with an offensive tip-in at the buzzer, sending the Bears into the break with a 27-25 lead.
 
Kapral scored the first points of the second half with a jumper in the paint but the Tartans went on to tie things at 30 apiece with 18:26 on the clock.
 
The Bears started to create some separation after a steal from Kindsvater followed by a jumper by sophomore George Gale, who was fouled, and hit the ensuing free throw. Doyle put in a fastbreak layup at 16:05 to put WashU ahead 38-31.
 
After CMU closed the gap to four points, the Bears went on a 7-0 run to take a double-digit lead for the first time in the game. Sophomore Emmett Lawton scored on an and-one play and Gale had an offensive putback. May followed with another offensive putback for a 47-36 lead at 12:38.
 
The Tartans' Isaac Higgs scored on an and-one play, but Gale stole the ball for the Bears and May netted a 3-pointer to put WashU back up by 11 points, 50-39.
 
CMU closed the gap to six points again, midway through the second half. Cohen drilled back-to-back 3-pointers and put in a layup over a span two minutes to put WashU ahead 63-46 with 5:41 on the clock.
 
WashU continued to hold steady, going up 19 points at 3:11 following a Doyle putback. CMU hit a pair of free throws and Cohen netted another 3-pointer for the 20-point, 72-52 advantage with 2:34 on the clock. Kindsvater followed with a layup and first-years Yusuf Cissee and Anthony Pryzbilla scored the final points of the game en route to the 78-54 win.
 
The Bears had the advantage on the boards, 51-23, and had 29 second-chance points. WashU went 28-for-63 (44.4%) and 10-for-27 (37.0%) from 3-point range.
 
WashU closes out its regular-season home slate next weekend with a Friday evening game against Rochester at 5:30 p.m., which will be the Black History Month game, followed by a 2 p.m. game against Emory on Sunday, which will be senior day.
 
The Bears' final regular-season game is on Saturday, March 1 at the University of Chicago.