Pittsburgh, Pa., January 15, 2012 – The Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team moved into sole possession of the University Athletic Association (UAA) standings with a hard-fought 66-64 victory at Carnegie Mellon University on Sunday afternoon at Skibo Gymnasium in Pittsburgh.

Sophomore Chris Klimek scored a career-high 17 points and pulled down a career-best nine boards in the win, while freshman Matt Palucki tied a career-best with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Junior Ben Hoener also scored in double figures with 10 points off the bench. Washington University outrebounded Carnegie Mellon, 40-35, and had a 15-7 advantage in second-chance points.

Klimek was the lone bright spot for the Bears early in the first half, scoring nine of the Bears first 13 points as Washington U. built an early 13-7 lead. Carnegie Mellon, who lost 100-55 to Chicago on Friday, got back into the contest on the defensive end.

The Tartans kept Washington U. out of its offense playing tight defense, forcing four-straight turnovers by the Bears to get the lead down to one. A lay-up off the glass by Rob Mohen gave Carnegie Mellon its first lead of the game at 17-16 with 7:41 to play.

Carnegie Mellon took a one-point lead following a three-pointer by Asad Meghani, buy sophomore Tim Cooney followed up a missed three-pointer with a lay-up with six seconds to play to put WUSTL up 30-29 at half. Klimek finished the first half with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting, as Washington U. shot 44.4 percent (12-27) from the field and turned the ball over 10 times.

The Tartans opened the second half on a 6-2 run to take their largest lead of the game at 35-32 before a full timeout by Washington U. head coach Mark Edwards. The Bears responded out of the timeout with six-straight points, capped by a rebound and a put-back by Klimek.

Washington U., who was outrebounded 19-15 in the first half, turned the game around in the second half by hitting the offensive glass. Back-to-back put-backs by Palucki and junior Robert Burnett got the lead to 51-44 with 8:26 to play. After a timeout by Carnegie, senior Dylan Richternailed a three-pointer from the wing and then Palucki converted a three-point play to push the advantage to 11 (57-46) with 7:21 remaining.

The Bears led 65-54 with 3:55 to play, but Carnegie Mellon would not go away as a 10-1 run would get the lead down to two (66-64) following a jumper in the lane by Rashaun Riley. Sophomore Alan Aboona missed the front-end of a one-and-one before a timeout by CMU with 9.7 seconds left. CMU had a chance to send the game to overtime, but Riley missed an eight-foot floater at the buzzer.

Joe Kromka (16 points), Riley (13 points) and Meghani (10 points) all scored in double figures for Carnegie Mellon, which falls to 6-8 overall and 1-2 in the UAA. The Tartans nailed 14-of-16 at the line and had 18 turnovers in the loss.

Washington University (11-3, 3-0 UAA) returns home to the WU Field House to host four-straight conference games the next two weeks. Washington University hosts second-place Brandeis University (Friday, Jan. 20, 8 p.m.) and New York University (Sunday, Jan. 22, Noon) in its first two games next weekend.

Bear Notebook: Washington U. leads the all-time series with Carnegie Mellon 40-8 … The Bears are 9-1 this season when leading at halftime … Washington U.'s lone three-pointer of the game was by Richter with 7:45 to play … The Bears were 1-of-12 from three-point range and 11-of-20 from the foul line.