Kyle Beedon News Today

The script for the Washington University Men's basketball team has been pretty much the same lately: overcome early struggles, make clutch shots, and leave with a win. That’s the pattern they’ve been following for much of the past season, and it’s one they followed once again in their regular-season finale against the University of Chicago.

As they defended their home court down the stretch, the Bears pulled out a 72-61 win, a result that will likely go a long way towards locking up their at-large bid in the NCAA DIII tournament. The Bears extended their win streak to three on Feb. 18, topping Brandeis University 56-53 to bring their UAA record to 7-6.

After making the flight from Atlanta to upstate New York, the Bears showed up ready to play on Sunday, Feb. 11. From the opening tipoff to the final whistle, the Bears put on a clinic, riding a 15-0 start, a rebounding performance for the history books, and lockdown defense to a 75-61 victory.

The Bears have become used to comebacks in their tight UAA season, but as the clock wound down, they were unable to pull out a win this time. Carnegie Mellon held on for a 79–73 victory. Two days later, on Feb. 4, the Bears’ struggles were compounded by a 74–59 loss to No. 10 Case Western Reserve University.

The sharpshooting junior sat down with Student Life to talk about his locked-in summer, learning from older players like Jack Nolan, and advice he would give to the Student Life basketball team as they search for rec league glory.

Sunday’s win against a UAA-leading Case Western squad, along with a win Friday night against the gritty Carnegie Mellon University Tartans, capped off a season-defining weekend for the Bears.

Coming off an OT thriller against the University of Rochester where the Bears barely escaped with a win, it seemed now that the engine pushing their late-game heroics had run out of fuel as WashU headed East for a two game trip against the New York University Violets and Brandeis University Judges.

As the Bears have learned in their first three UAA matchups — the one-point loss at Chicago on Jan. 6, four-point victory over Emory on Jan. 12, and one-point overtime win over Rochester on Jan. 14 — every single game in the UAA is likely going to come down to the wire, and eking out wins like their first two certainly will not be an easy task.

In a weekend that saw No. 17 Washington University men’s basketball defeat Fontbonne University 96-75 and Principia College 90-56, the Bears’ roster depth shined. Players outside of the starting five contributed a combined 95 points off of the bench across the two games played on Dec. 16 and Dec. 17.

In their season-opener against Swarthmore– a team that made it all the way to last year’s final four–the Bears wasted no time asserting their dominance, with juniors Hayden Doyle and Drake Kindsvater guiding the charge.