New York, N.Y., January 21, 2011 – Senior Caleb Knepper drained four three-pointers in the second half to lead the Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team to a hard fought 80-76 victory over University Athletic Association (UAA) rival New York University on Friday night at the Coles Sports Center in New York, N.Y.

Sophomore Ben Hoener scored a career-high 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting and senior forward Spencer Gay tied his career-high with 22 points, shooting 7-of-12 from the field. Junior Dylan Richter made it four Bears in double figures with 13 points and Washington University shot 50.0 percent (26-of-52) as a team.

With his 22 points, Gay eclipsed 500 for his career to increase his career tally to 515, while Knepper passed 100 career three-pointers and now has 103-career triples. The Bears also snapped a six-game road losing streak with the big UAA win and improve to 3-6 away from home this season.

New York shot a blistering 9-of-16 from three-point range in the first half but the Bears still took a 43-39 lead into the half thanks to Gay's 16 point scoring binge. Gay shot 6-of-8 from the field in the first period and was 4-of-4 from the charity stripe.

New York jumped out to a 6-0 lead just over a minute into the game thanks to three-pointers from D.J. Glavan and Kyle Stockmal, but the Bears responded with a 15-3 run that ended as freshman Tim Cooney drained his second three of the half.

The Violets came back to knot the score at 17-17 before Gay took over the game, scoring six-straight points to put Washington University back in front, 23-17. Three-point shooting played a major part in the 14-3 New York run that followed as the Violets saw three different players sink a trey and they grabbed a 31-26 lead thanks to another long-range buck from Stockmal.

Washington U. closed strong, scoring seven points over the final 1:10 of the half. Richter knocked down a triple to tie the game for the fifth time, 39-39, and the Bears regained the lead on a crafty Gay lay-up along the baseline.

The two teams combined to hit 14 first-half three points and shoot .519 from three-point range. In addition to Gay's 16 points, Richter was also in double figures at the intermission with 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting; all three field goals were three pointers. The Bears dominated the painted area, holding an 18-6 edge but were outscored 13-4 off the bench.

New York made its first shot of the second half, not surprisingly another three pointer this time from Carl Yaffe, to cut its deficit to just one point and from that point neither team took more than a one-possession lead until Knepper began to head up from three later in the half.

Knepper sank two-straight three-pointers to give the Bears a four-point cushion, 68-64, their largest lead since the start of the second half. New York once again made it a one-possession game but the Bears kept feeding Knepper on the outside, and he hit two more threes to put the Red and Green ahead 74-70.

Knepper drained four three-pointers, accounting for all of Washington University's points over a six-minute stretch of the second half. Washington U. was 4-of-5 from the free-throw line over the final 30 seconds of the game to clinch the victory. The Bears shot 18-of-22 (.818) from the free-throw line as a team while New York was just 10-of-18 (.556).

Washington University (7-8, 1-3 UAA) concludes its two-game road trip to the East Coach on Sunday, Jan. 23, at Brandeis University. Tip off is set for 11:30 a.m. (ET) at Red Auerbach Arena in Waltham, Mass.

Bear Notebook: Washington U. has won 64 of its last 68 games when leading at the half … Washington University now leads the all-time series with New York, 35-11, and the Bears have won 11-straight meetings with the Violets … Both the Washington University men's and women's basketball teams scored exactly 80 points in their victories at New York on Friday night.