MEMPHIS, Tenn. – For the second time this season, the No. 2 Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team defeated Rhodes. This time, the Bears beat the Lynx 60-54 on the road, improving to 6-0 on the season.
 
Senior Hayden Doyle led the Bears with 21 points to go with four rebounds and three assists. Senior Drake Kindsvater netted 16 points and grabbed nine boards. Sophomore George Gale scored eight points and had seven rebounds while junior Will Grudzinski had five points, six rebounds and five assists.
 
The Bears outscored Rhodes 39-19 in the first half before the Lynx came back to outscore WashU 35-21 in the second half.
 
WashU stormed out to a 9-0 lead in the opening 2:30, starting with a 3-pointer and a jumper from Doyle. Kindsvater put in back-to-back layups to give the Bears the nine-point edge.
 
Leading 12-5 with 15:24 on the clock, the Bears went on an 8-0 run to take a 15-point, 20-5 lead. Kindsvater started the run with a pair of free throws, followed by a jumper from Gale. Kindsvater had an offensive putback and then stole the ball for a fastbreak layup, prompting a Rhodes' timeout.
 
With 11:01 on the clock, Gale slammed one home and then put in a layup on the next play to put the Bears ahead 16 points, 24-8.
 
WashU maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the first half, with Rhodes only coming with 13 points at the 5:36 mark. From there, WashU scored six-straight, starting with a layup from Doyle, followed by a free throw from Kindsvater. Sophomore Emmett Lawton hit a shot from distance with 3:24 remaining to make it a 35-16 game.
 
The Bears closed out the first half with a jumper from Doyle and a layup from Gale to go ahead 39-19.
 
The Lynx scored the first four points of the second half on a layup and offensive putback from Shawn Jones, Jr.
 
It wasn't until the 13:21 mark that Rhodes started to make a dent in the Bears' lead. Down 19, Zavien Williams drilled back-to-back 3-pointers. Trevor Lombard scored followed a Jones, Jr. steal making it an 11-point, 47-36 game with 11:16 remaining, prompting a timeout from the Bears.
 
Out of the timeout, Lombard netted the backend of a pair of free throws and Jones, Jr. put in a layup to make it single-digit game, 48-39 with 8:19 left.
 
WashU followed with a 10-0 run, starting with a free throw from Lawton. First-year Connor May hit a shot from distance and Doyle followed with back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Bears' a 59-41 lead with 3:05 on the clock.
 
The Lynx, however, scored 11-straight points to cut the lead down to seven points in the final 38 seconds. That run included three 3-pointers and a layup from Lombard to make it 59-52.
 
May hit a free throw and Rhodes also netted two free throws but it was not enough and the Bears held on for the win.
 
WashU shot 22-for-52 with an 8-for-22 clip from 3-point range. The Bears narrowly out-rebounded Rhodes 40-36.
 
The Bears are back in action next weekend at home with the 40^th Annual Lopata Classic were they will welcome Colby, Denison and UC-Santa Cruz. WashU tips off against Colby at 7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 6 and will play in either the consolation game at 1 p.m. or the championship game at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7.