St. Louis, Mo., February 23, 2014 – The No. 3-ranked Washington University men's basketball team celebrated Senior Day with a thrilling 83-79 win over Carnegie Mellon University Sunday afternoon at the WU Field House in St. Louis.
Washington U. ended the game on a 12-0 run in the final 2:42 to extend its winning steak to 17 games and improve their overall record to 22-2. The Bears remain undefeated in conference play with a 13-0 mark, and travel to the University of Chicago Saturday, March 2, at 3 p.m. for the final game of the regular season.
Prior to the contest, Washington U. honored its five senior players Alan Aboona, Tim Cooney, Chris Klimek, Will Patt, Jordan Rapp and senior manager Adam Lowenstein. This group has compiled a 76-27 (.738) overall record in their four seasons on the Danforth Campus with three-straight NCAA Tournament appearances and three-straight University Athletic Association (UAA) titles (2012, 2013, 2014).
Cooney scored 14 of his game-high 26 points in the second and hit a career-high five three-pointers in the win. Aboona added 17 points and junior Nick Burt recorded his first career double-double with 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.
Washington U. shot 46.6 percent (27-58) from the field in the win and hit 20-of-32 from the free-throw line. The Bears turned 13 offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points, and outrebounded Carnegie Mellon 45-29 for the game.
Cooney came out quickly in the first half taking advantage of a box-and-one on Aboona with a pair of threes as the Bears led 10-2 two minutes in. A three-pointer by Asad Meghani capped a 12-1 run by Carnegie as the Tartans built a 14-11 lead.
After two free-throws by Patt which cut the lead the CMU lead three (24-21), back-to-back threes by Jack Serbin and Asad Meghani made it 30-21 and forced a timeout by Washington U. Another bucket by the Tartans extended the run to 8-0 and pushed the lead to double figures (32-21).
Trailing by 12 with less than two minutes remaining, the Bears ended the half on a 6-0 run cutting the CMU halftime advantage to 39-33. Cooney led the Bears with 12 points as three of Washington U.'s five starters were on the bench in foul trouble.
The Tartans built the lead to doubles figures (51-41) with 16:53 to play following a three-pointer by Meghani. Washington U. answered back with a 10-0 run to tied the score at 51-51 after a fast break lay-up by Burt.
A baseline three-pointer by Cooney cut the CMU lead to 66-64 with 8:15 to play, but the Tartans scored six-straight to get the lead back to 73-66. Carnegie Mellon took the 79-71 lead after a bucket by Rob Mohen with 2:42 to play, but the Tartans would not score the rest of the way. CMU was 0-for-2 from the field, 0-for-2 from the free-throw line and had two turnovers to end the game.
Christian Manoli (14 points), Seth Cordts (13), Meghani (13) and Rashuan Riley (12) all scored in double figures for Carnegie Mellon, which dropped to 11-13, 4-9 in the UAA. The Tartans, who has lost eight of the last 10 games, connected on 10-of-25 three-pointers in the loss.
Bear Notebook: Washington U. leads the all-time series with Carnegie Mellon, 45-8, and the Bears have won 13 of the last 14 meetings … The Bears finished the regular season with a perfect 14-0 record at home … The 17-game win streak is the third longest in school history … The Bears are 13-0 in UAA play for the second time … Aboona is 21 points shy of becoming the 22nd member of 1,000-point club … The victory for head coach Mark Edwards' was the 605th of his career … Cooney appeared in the 100th game of his career.