St. Louis, Mo., December 8, 2010 – Junior Dylan Richter scored a career-high 23 points and senior Spencer Gay tied his career high with 22 points as the Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team picked up a 82-65 victory over Fontbonne University on Wednesday night at the Washington University Field House in St. Louis, Mo.
Freshman guard Tim Cooney also scored in double figures for Washington University and set a new career-high with 14 points. Sophomore point guard Ben Hoener racked up a career-best 10 assists as Washington University shot 51.7 percent from the field and 52.6 percent from three-point range, hitting a season-high 10 three pointers in the win.
Fontbonne (2-5) missed five of its first six shots and turned the ball over five times as Washington University built a 12-2 lead early in the first half. Gay opened the game shooting 3-for-4 from the field and the Bears' lead stretched to 10 as he found Cooney for a wide open three-pointer at the 14:17 mark.
The Bears were unable to build on their double-digit lead, going through a prolonged offensive drought after pulling ahead 17-7. Washington U. was just 1-4 from the field and turned the ball over six times over a nearly five-minute period as Fontbonne came all the way back to tied knot the score at 22-22 with a Saliou Dioum fast-break dunk off a Hoener turnover.
After the momentum swing in favor of the Griffins, Washington U. fought right back, scoring 14 unanswered points over a six-minute stretch that saw Fontbonne miss seven-straight field goal attempts.
The Bears took a nine-point lead into the half, thanks to 17 points from Gay on 8-of-12 shooting. Only four players scored for Washington U. in the first half, with Fontbonne holding a 14-0 lead in bench scoring. Hoener ended the first half with seven assists, which set a new career high, turning the ball over just once.
Fontbonne scored seven points in the first minute of the second half to pull within two points, 36-34, before Hoener made a lay-up to get the Bears' offense back on track. Hoener's basket sparked what turned into a 10-2 run that allowed Washington U. to regain a 10-point advantage.
Richter drained a three-pointer with just over 13 minutes to play to give Washington its largest lead of the game, a 16-point cushion, which quickly turned into 20-point lead just over a minute later when Hoener sunk a fast-break jumper. Fontbonne was unable to cut the WUSTL lead to less than 15 for the rest of the game.
Freddie Fleming scored 13 points to lead Fontbonne and Buford (11 points) and Freddie Fleming (10 points) also scored in double figures for the Griffins.
Washington University (4-3) travels to Wheaton College for a key regional matchup on Saturday, Dec. 11, at 7:30 p.m.
Bear Notebook: The Washington University starters accounted for the Bears' first 66 points of the game before sophomore Rob Burnett hit a free throw with 7:50 to play the second half … Washington University leads the all-time series with Fontbonne, 12-1, and has won the last nine meetings … The Bears have won 62 of their last 64 games when leading at halftime … Gay has scored in double figures in six of seven games played.