St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 1, 2015 – Case Western Reserve drained a season-high 15 three-pointers and shot 53.4 percent from the field as the Spartans posted an 89-78 upset win at No. 7-ranked Washington University in St. Louis Sunday in University Athletic Association (UAA) men's basketball action at the WU Field House.
Case Western Reserve hit 15-of-30 from three-point range in the win, including 9-of-21 in the first half. The Bears connected on just 2-of-12 from beyond the arc, tied for a season-low.
Senior forward Nick Burt recorded his fifth career double-double with a career-high 25 points and 10 rebounds, while senior forward Matt Palucki added 16 points and nine boards.
Junior forward Mitch Styczynski (15 points) and senior guard David Fatoki (14 points, seven assists) also scored in double figures for the Bears. Washington U. shot 47.3 percent (26-of-55) from the field and hit 24-of-30 free-throws in the loss.
Washington U. dropped to 15-3, 4-3 in the UAA, while Case improved to 14-4, 5-2 in the UAA. Case and Chicago are tied for first place in the UAA standings at the halfway point, while the Bears are a game back.
Washington U. started slow and trailed 14-6 four minutes into the first half. Case Western Reserve jumped out to its largest lead of the half at 38-23 with 6:25 remaining after an 11-0 run.
The Bears mounted their comeback behind the play of Burt. He scored five-straight points to get the lead down to seven (38-31), and then he scored the final three points to trim the advantage to 44-38 at half.
Burt had 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field and 8-of-11 from the free-throw line in the first half. The Bears shot 44.4 percent (12-of-27) from the field, and hit just 1-of-7 from three-point range. Dane McLoughlin had 17 points on five threes in the opening half as the Spartans connected on nine treys.
Washington U. scored the opening four points of the second half after a lay-in by Fatoki and a bucket by Palucki, but that would be as close as the Bears would get. A 10-2 run by Case midway through the second half pushed the Spartan advantage to 65-52 with 11:32 to play.
McLoughlin scored 25 points on 7-of-10 three-pointers, while Connor Edel (16 points), Julien Person (16 points, seven assists, six rebounds) and Jimmy Holman (10 points, five assists) also scored in double figures for Case. The Spartans had 25 assists on 31 field goals, and had a 15-6 advantage in bench points.
Washington U. opens a four-game road trip with a pair of games at Carnegie Mellon on Friday, Feb. 6, at 8 p.m. (ET) and Case Western Reserve Sunday at Noon (ET).
Bear Notebook: Washington U. leads the all-time series with Case Western Reserve, 40-5, and had its 19-game win streak snapped … The loss for Washington U. was its first of the season at home (6-1), and snapped a 16-game win streak on Sundays … Palucki moved past Chris Klimek (2010-14) into 19th on the all-time Washington U. scoring list … The Bears have connected on two three-pointers in all three of its losses this season.