St. Louis, Mo., Feb. 23, 2019 – The Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team celebrated Senior Day with an 81-63 victory over the University of Chicago Saturday at the WU Field House in St. Louis.
WashU won its third-straight game to improve to 17-8 and 10-4 in University Athletic Association (UAA) play, while Chicago ended its season with a 15-10 record and 8-6 in the conference. The Bears finished in a tie for second place in the UAA standings.
Prior to the contest WashU honored senior center Marcus Meyer and senior all-purpose personnel Andrew Sweren. Meyer helped the Bears to a 75-28 (.728) overall record with two NCAA Tournament appearances and the 2017 and 2018 University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship in his four seasons.
Sophomore guard Jack Nolan had a career-high 26 points, six assists and five steals, while junior forward Hank Hunter had 13 points and five rebounds off the bench. Junior guard Matt Nester added 11 points and five assists, and freshman forward Justin Hardy had 10 points and seven rebounds.
WashU shot 53.3 percent (32-60) from the field and outrebounded Chicago 39-30. The Bears had 20 assists on 32 field goals, and added nine steals.
Chicago took its largest lead of the game at 32-24 with 6:43 to play, but the Bears answered with an 8-0 run to tie the score at 32-32. Hardy hit a three-pointer to put WashU up 37-33.
The score was tied four times and the lead changed six times as WashU led 41-39 at half. Hunter had 13 points on 6-of-6 shooting to lead WashU in the first half. The Bears shot 53.3 percent in the first half, and had 12 assists on 16 field goals.
Nolan had back-to-back steals to open the second half and turned that into five points to extend the advantage to 46-39. Nolan added a three-pointer and then junior guard Jonathan Arenas had a lay-up as the lead grew to 53-42. He finished the day with eight points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Nolan drained a three-pointer to make it 58-45, and then a triple from the wing by freshman forward Kameron Mack pushed the lead to 68-52.
Cole Schmitz led Chicago with 15 points, while Ryan Jacobsen had two points, three assists, three steals and 12 rebounds.
The 2019 NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Selection Show is scheduled for Monday, Feb. 25, at 11:30 p.m. at www.ncaa.com.
BEAR NOTEBOOK: WashU leads the all-time series with Chicago, 52-23, and the Bears snapped a two-game losing streak to the Maroons … Nolan went over 700 points in his career … WashU shot 16-of-30 in each half … Meyer finished his career with 342 points, 227 rebounds and 46 blocks in 96 contests.