Rochester, N.Y., Feb. 15, 2015 – The No. 14-ranked Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team remained in contention for a fourth-straight University Athletic Association (UAA) championship with a 94-87 road win at the University of Rochester Sunday in Rochester, N.Y.
Washington U. improved to 17-5, 6-5 in the UAA, while Rochester fell to 9-13, 5-6 in conference play. The Bears are in a tie for second place in the UAA standings, one game behind first-place Chicago, Emory and New York.
Junior guard Luke Silverman-Lloyd had a career-high 22 points on 5-of-6 three-point shooting, while senior forward Nick Burt recorded his sixth career double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman forward Matt Highsmithscored 14 of his career-best 18 points in the second half, while junior forward Mitch Styczynski had 14 points.
Senior guard David Fatoki, who appeared in his 75th career game, added eight points and 11 assists in the win. Fatoki moved into sixth place on the Washington U. single-season list with 164 assists.
Washington U. shot 54.7 percent (35-of-64) from the field in the win, and hit 6-of-10 from three-point range. The Bears also hit 18-of-19 from the foul line, the second highest percentage (94.7) in school history. Washington U. had 22 assists on 35 field goals, and a 26-12 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Bears come out with much-needed energy and an alley-oop from Fatoki to Styczynski gave Washington U. the early 12-6 lead. A three-pointer from the corner by Silverman-Lloyd and a three-point play by Burt gave Washington U. at 27-19 lead with 10:23 to play.
The bench scored six of the nine points during a 9-0 run as the Bears took a 36-23 with 6:33 left. Highsmith had two buckets, and while senior guard Kent Lacob added a long two.
Rochester answered back with an 8-0 run to cut the lead to five (36-31), but the Bears answered with another 9-0 run to take their largest lead of the half at 45-31 on a lay-up by Fatoki.
Washington U. shot 55.6 percent (20-of-36) in the opening half, and had 13 assists. The Bears' defense forced 11 turnovers and limited the Yellowjackets to 3-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc. Silverman-Lloyd had 12 points on 3-of-3 three-pointers, while Styczynski added 10 points.
The Bears continued to hold a double-digit lead early in the second half, and jumped ahead 59-45 after a lay-up and a three-pointer by Palucki. Silverman-Lloyd continued to burn the nets as he nailed a pair of threes in a 90-second span to get the lead up to 15 (71-56).
Highsmith added a spark off the bench in the second half as his second three-point play of the half made it 74-59 with less than 11 minutes left.
Rochester started to chip away at the double-digit lead behind the play of Jared Seltzer. He canned back-to-back threes and then recorded a steal and a lay-up to make it 78-72 with 5:16 to play. The Yellowjackets got as close as three (90-87) with 16 seconds left by Sam Borst-Smith, but senior forward Matt Palucki and Silverman-Lloyd nailed four-straight at the line to seal the victory.
Mack Montague (19 points), Seltzer (19) and Borst-Smith (18) all scored in double figures for Rochester, who hit 14-of-31 threes in the loss.
Washington U. opens a three-game home stand against New York University Friday, Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. and Brandeis University on Sunday, Feb. 22, at Noon.
Bear Notebook: Washington U. leads the all-time series with Rochester, 36-22, and has won five-straight meetings … Palucki passed Paul Jackson (1984-88) and Jarriot Rook (1999-03) into 16th on the all-time scoring list with 1,175 points … Palucki also moved into fifth place for career rebounds (697).