ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The No. 14 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team surged passed Transylvania 82-47 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday evening in the Field House. The Bears will face No. 19 UW-Whitewater tomorrow evening in the regional final at 7:35 p.m.
 
WashU put up balanced scoring, with five players reaching double-digits. First-year Theo Rocca led all scorers with 12 points to go with six rebounds. Sophomore Connor May recorded a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.
 
Senior Yogi Oliff scored 11 points and grabbed seven boards while junior Ryan Cohen went 3-for-4 from 3-point range to finish with 11 points. Sophomore Anthony Przybilla scored 11 points and had four rebounds.
 
First-year Josh Kim scored eight points and pulled down eight rebounds while junior George Gale also scored eight points.
 
The Bears open the game on an 8-2 run, starting with a layup from Kim followed by an offensive putback from senior Calvin Kapral. Following a Transylvania bucket, Gale slammed one home and Oliff put in a layup.
 
The Pioneers made it a one point, 9-8 game at the 12:06 mark and it stayed closed over the next several minutes of play.
 
Up three points at the 6:42 mark, the Bears started to create some distance with a 12-0 run. The first seven points of the run were scored by Rocca with a jumper, a layup and a 3-pointer.
 
Cohen followed with a 3-pointer and May laid one in to put the Bears up 31-16 with 3:56 left in the first half.
 
In the final 2:00 of the half, the Bears scored six-straight on a 3-pointer from Cohen, a free throw from Oliff, and a layup from Kim for a 37-20 lead at the half.
 
With the Bears up 17 in the opening minutes of the second half, Transy put in five-straight to cut it to 12 points, 42-30, at 14:25. Rocca responded with a layup and Kim netted a pair of free throws. Gale slammed one home again and Przybilla added a bucket. Oliff had back-to-back layups to push WashU's lead to 24 points, 54-30, midway through the half.
 
Following a Pioneers' bucket, the Bears scored another six-straight, starting with a layup from May. Gale netted a free throw and Oliff put in a pair before May closed out the run with another layup for a 29-point, 61-32 advantage with 8:34 remaining.
 
A pair of free throws from May at the 8:00 mark tipped the Bears' lead to 30 points. WashU's lead dipped below the 30-point threshold just twice in the remaining minutes.
 
In the final three minutes, the Bears got 3-pointers from senior Will Grudzinski and grad student Kyle Beedon, as well as a bucket from junior Lucas Vogel to close out the game.
 
WashU was 29-for-62 (46.8%) with a 6-for-16 (37.5%) clip from 3-point range. The Bears dominated on the boards, out-rebounding Transy 56-29.
 
Tomorrow's winner will face the winner of the St. Thomas (TX) pod between St. Thomas (TX) and Trinity (TX).
 
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