St. Louis, Mo., Dec. 29, 2017 – Senior forward Andrew Sanders scored 21 points and became the 24th player in school history to score 1,000 career points as the No. 10-ranked Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team suffered a 72-57 loss to No. 3 Augustana College (Ill.) Friday at the WU Field House in St. Louis.
Augustana won its sixth-straight game to improve to 10-1, while WashU had its four-game win streak snapped and dropped to 8-2.
Sanders eclipsed the 1,000-point mark with a free-throw with 10:19 left in the second half. He has 1,005 points in 70 career games. Sanders led all scorers with 21 points in the contest on 7-of-15 shooting from the field. He also added five rebounds.
Augustana hit six of its first nine shots from the field and led 14-3 with 15:54 to play. The Vikings continued to give WashU fits on the offensive end, and led 20-7 following a steal and a dunk by Chrishawn Orange.
Freshman guard Jack Nolan canned a pair of three-pointers to get the lead down to 25-15 with 9:43 to play.
The Bears cut the lead to nine (27-18), but Augustana ended the half on a 12-2 run. Carson Frakes drained a three-pointer with four seconds left to make it 39-20.
Augustana shot 44.8 percent (13-29) from the field in the first half, and outrebounded WashU 27-18. The Vikings also had a 10-2 advantage in second-chance points and 14-3 in points off turnovers. Nolan led WashU with six points.
WashU opened the second half on a 9-0 run, and then a bucket by Sanders got the lead down to 42-31. Augustana answered with a pair of threes to get the lead back to 17 (48-31).
The Bears followed with an 11-2 run to trim the advantage to 58-50 with 6:47 left, capped by a three-pointer and a jumper by Nolan. Out of a timeout, The Vikings scored six-straight to put the game out of reach at 64-50.
Nolan had 11 points off the bench as WashU shot 34.5 percent (19-of-55) from the field, its second-lowest of the season. The Bears also shot a season-low 56.5 percent (13-of-23) from the foul line.
Orange (18 points), Nolan Ebel (16), Dylan Sortillo (12) and Micah Martin (10) scored in double figures for Augustana, who shot 45.1 percent (23-of-51) from the field and outrebounded WashU 41-33.
WashU plays its final non-conference game on Sunday, Dec. 31, against Westminster College (7-3, 3-1 SLIAC). Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. at the WU Field House.
BEAR NOTEBOOK
• Augustana leads the all-time series 6-5.
• WashU is 3-5 against ranked teams the last two seasons.
• The Bears suffered their first loss of the season at home.
• WashU had its 12-game win streak snapped on Fridays