ST. LOUIS, MO – 2nd-ranked Washington University used a big run midway through the second half, leading to a 77-63 victory over the University of Rochester men's basketball team on Friday evening at the Wash U Field House.
The Bears (17-2, 8-0 UAA) picked up their second win over UR (13-6, 4-4 UAA) in the last seven days, following a 15-point victory at Rochester's Palestra last Friday night. Washington now has won nine straight games while the Yellowjackets drop their third straight contest.
UR shot well from distance, making 10-23 attempts (43.5%), but were just 14-39 (35.8%) on shots inside the arc in this one. The Yellowjackets also only made 5-11 free throws, compared to 16-21 for the homestanding Bears.
Rochester was able to get on the board first with a Jacob Urban layup, but that would end up being UR's only lead of the contest as the Bears would take the lead on a Kevin Kucera 3-pointer and never looked back.
Washington built an 8-point lead following a dunk from David Schmelter, capping a 6-0 burst with 11:47 left in the half, but the Yellowjackets answered scoring eight of the next 10 points to pull back within two. Patrick Benka scored five straight points and Brendan O'Shea added a 3-pointer to make it 19-17 WashU with 8:51 on the clock.
The Bears then stepped up their defense, holding Rochester to two points over the next four and a half minutes, to build their first double-digit lead of the contest going up 29-19. Jacob Wittig drained back-to-back three's to cut the lead to four, and then two buckets, one each by Ryan Clamage and Andrew Lundstrom, coupled with the Bears going 2-4 on free throws pulled UR within two.
WU's Schmelter and UR's Benka then each split two free throws to make the score 32-30 before Jake Knupp sank two 3-pointers in the final minute of the half, sending the Bears into halftime with a 38-30 lead.
In the second half, Washington kept Rochester at arm's length for the opening five minutes, and then put the game away with a 16-4 run over the next five minutes, expanding its margin out to 18 with 9:45 remaining in the game. Kucera scored five straight to start the run, and Schmelter added six points inside for the Bears in the stretch.
The Yellowjackets ended up being led by Wittig who scored 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Benka sank three treys and had 12 points. Urban finished with eight points and six rebounds while Clamage scored seven.
Washington's leading scorer was Schmelter who finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Kucera scored 13 points and had four assists, while Knupp chipped in 12 points. Andrew Sanders did a little bit of everything for the Bears, scored 11 points while adding 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals.
Rochester returns to action with a big road contest at the University of Chicago on Sunday morning starting at 11 am Central Time.