Platteville, Wis., Nov. 16, 2019 – The No. 7 ranked Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team suffered its first loss of the season in a 76-63 defeat at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Saturday in Platteville, Wis.
UW-Platteville remained undefeated with a 3-0 mark, while WashU fell to 2-1.
Sophomore Justin Hardy led WashU with 18 points on 6-of-16 shooting, while junior guard Jack Nolan was limited to a season-low 13 points on just nine shot attempts. The duo came in averaging 47.5 points per game in the opening two contests. Senior center Hank Hunter had a game-high nine rebounds.
WashU shot a season-low 40.4 percent from the field (23-57), and hit just 5-of-14 from three-point range. The Bears outrebounded the Pioneers 34-23 and had a 12-2 advantage in second-chance points.
The Bears trailed 11-2 in the opening five minutes of play, and the lead grew to 24-10 midway through the first half as WashU hit just 5-of-18 from the field to start the contest.
Hardy hit a pair of three-pointers in the final 45 seconds to trim the advantage to 43-31 at half. He had 14 of the 31 points for WashU in the opening half.
WashU got the lead down to nine (58-49) on a three-pointer by junior Payden Webb with less than 10 minutes to play, but that would be as close as the Bears would get.
Quentin Shields (29 points) and Carter Voelker (20) combined to score 49 of the 76 points for the Pioneers. UW-Platteville shot 50.9 percent (29-57) from the field and hit 14-of-30 three-pointers.
WashU hosts the 36th Annual Lopata Classic on Friday-Saturday, Nov. 22-23. The Bears take on Coe Friday at 7 p.m., while Whitworth and Wisconsin-Eau Claire take the court at 5 p.m.
BEAR NOTEBOOK: UW-Platteville leads the all-time series 3-2 … The Bears were limited to three assists, the lowest total in over a decade.