HOUSTON, Texas – The No. 14 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team suffered a 65-63 heartbreaker at No. 3 St. Thomas (TX) in the Sweet 16 on Friday evening. The Bears concluded their season at 20-8.
First-year
Theo Rocca led the Bears with 18 points while tallying five rebounds and two steals. Sophomore
Connor May scored 15 points and had four rebounds.
Even action from the start, the game was tied at 2-2 and 4-4 before St. Thomas went on a 7-0 run to take an 11-4 lead at the 15:17 mark.
The Bears scored the next two points on a pair of free throws from Rocca and, following a St. Thomas layup, hit back-to-back 3-pointers from May to make it a one-point 13-12 game with 11:01 on the clock.
Trailing by a handful of points as the clock ticked down, a free throw from first-year
Josh Kim and a layup from senior
Yogi Oliff tied the game at 20. The score was tied again at 22 before the Celts scored seven straight for a 29-22 game with 3:29 left in the first half.
Rocca and junior
Ryan Cohen each hit a set of free throws to cut it to a three-point, 29-26, game with just over one minute left to play. The teams exchanged buckets, and St. Thomas closed the half out with a 3-pointer to send the Bears into the locker room trailing 34-28.
The Celts slowly started to create some distance in the opening minutes of the second half, going up 46-34 with 15:03 on the clock. Three straight layups from Rocca brought it back down to single digits, making it a 48-42 game midway through the half.
Following a St. Thomas jumper, Rocca nailed a 3-pointer at 8:59 for the 50-45 game.
The Celts went on to build their lead back up to 12 points, 60-48, with 4:41 on the clock and remained in the lead by double digits until the final 1:14 of the game.
Rocca hit a 3-pointer with 1:14 on the clock, and sophomore
Anthony Przybilla hit a layup for a seven-point, 64-57 game.
Following a free throw from UST, May put in a layup followed by a 3-pointer with nine seconds remaining to make it a three-point, 65-62, game. With three seconds left, Cohen netted the front end of a pair of free throws, but the Celts secured the rebound on the second shot and held on for the win.
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