WALTHAM, Mass. – The (RV) Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team picked up its final regular-season road win of the year, beating Brandeis 74-68 on Sunday afternoon. The Bears are now 17-7 overall with a 7-6 mark in UAA play.
Senior
Will Grudzinski led the Bears, scoring 21 points in 25 minutes of action, going 8-for-11 and 5-for-7 from 3-point range, while also grabbing five rebounds. Sophomore
Connor May scored 16 points and pulled down six rebounds while junior
George Gale put up 12 points and six rebounds.
The Judges came out firing, going on a 10-0 run to open the game before first-year
Josh Kim scored WashU's first points at 16:03. May added a layup less than 30 seconds later and a layup from Grudzinski at 14:11 made it a 13-6 game.
May had an offensive putback and Gale slammed one home at 12:19 to cut Brandeis' lead to 13-10. The Judges went back up by as many as eight points in the next few minutes before the Bears went on to take the lead.
Down seven points at 9:03, Grudzinski drained back-to-back 3-pointers to make it a one-point, 22-21 game. A layup from May at 5:50 put the Bears ahead for the first time and another bucket from May at 5:15 gave WashU a 25-22 lead.
Those baskets would lead to a 22-0 run for WashU. A 3-pointer from May closed out the run with a 37-22 lead with 2:17 remaining in the first half.
After exchanging buckets, Brandeis hit the final points of the half, sending WashU into halftime with a 39-29 advantage.
The Judges hit the first basket of the second half as Elias Rodl drained a 3-pointer. Following a layup from Grudzinski, Brandeis scored five-straight to cut WashU's lead to 41-37 at 15:53.
As the clock ticked down, the Judges brought it within one point at 11:51. The Bears responded with an 8-0 run on a layup from Gale, a 3-point from Grudzinski, a free throw from May and a layup from Kim for a 58-52 lead.
A layup from Gale and a 3-pointer from junior
Ryan Cohen extended the lead to nine points, 63-54 with 5:04 left to play.
In the final 1:35, layups from Kim and Gale put the Bears ahead by double-digits again, 72-61, and WashU held of Brandeis in the final minute en route to the 74-68 win.
The Bears shot 32-for-68 (47.1%) including 9-for-24 (37.5%) from 3-point range. WashU had a 45-31 edge on the boards.
WashU concludes the regular season on Saturday, February 28 when they welcome No. 6 Chicago for a 1 p.m. game. Prior to tip-off, the Bears will honor their seniors and it will also be the Black History Month game.
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