Junior Connor May goes for a layup in the Bears’ win over Carnegie Mellon. (Bri Nitsberg | Managing Photo Editor)

Eleven games into a 14-round prize fight, as WashU men’s basketball head coach Pat Juckem described WashU’s University Athletic Association (UAA) schedule Friday, WashU is still standing tall. After being knocked down in a pair of road losses last weekend, the Bears picked themselves off the mat, landing critical wins over Carnegie Mellon University and Case Western Reserve University on Feb. 13 and 15.

“To not get too high or too low, to stay the course, I just give so much credit to the guys [and] their resilience,” Juckem said after the win over Carnegie Mellon on Friday.

With the pair of victories, WashU improved to 5-6 in conference play, the fifth-best mark in the elite eight-team division. The Bears — ranked 21st in the NCAA Net Power Index, the official metric used by the NCAA to determine postseason spots —  are still on the right side of the Division III bubble with three games left to play. 

Though the wins came against the two weakest UAA squads, a weekend sweep can be hard to come by in the highly competitive UAA, and the Bears’ performances give WashU the momentum it needs going into a challenging end-of-season stretch against three teams they dropped games to earlier this season.

WashU 73, Carnegie Mellon 64

The Bears’ weekend started with a win over Carnegie Mellon, a team who they had lost to in a 64-61 nail-biter on Jan. 16. This time around, WashU once again held the Tartans to 64 points, but put up 73 of their own to take a much-needed victory.

The Tartans took an early 10-4 lead Friday night, but the Bears tied the game up at 12 before exchanging points for much of the first half. In the final minutes of the opening period, the Bears began to show their mettle, opening up a 35-26 lead off of back-to-back buckets by first-year guard Josh Kim. 

The Bears continued the momentum into the second half, extending their lead to 56-39 with 12 minutes to play. The Tartans wouldn’t go away though, scoring 8 straight points to narrow the gap to just 9 points. However, the margin would never get closer than nine, as WashU held off their visitors throughout the final 10 minutes. Sophomore forward Connor May scored 8 points in the final six minutes, and WashU closed out the 73-64 win to improve their overall record to 14-7.

In a back-and-forth UAA battle, the small things can make all the difference. WashU retrieved 13 offensive rebounds, compared to just six for their visitors, and turned them into points, scoring 11 on second-chance opportunities. After the game, head coach Pat Juckem pointed to the Bears’ grit as a key factor.

“In our shootaround today, Theo Rocca, who’s a freshman [guard], was like, ‘Guys, it’s just about toughness.’ This is a great competition, everyone’s really good, it’s just about who’s gonna make the tough plays.” Juckem said. 

The Bears’ rebounding effort was led by senior point guard Yogi Oliff, who logged 10 boards alongside five assists. May also grabbed eight rebounds while scoring a team-high 17 points.

WashU 92, Case Western 80

Two days later, the Bears returned to the court for a matchup with Case Western, who WashU beat 100-93 on Jan. 18. In another high-scoring affair, the Bears outlasted the Spartans, relying on a strong second half to pull out a 92-80 victory.

Early on, the Bears struggled to contain Case Western senior guard Anand Dharmarajan, who scored a career-high 35 points in the game. The St. Louis native excelled in his return to the Gateway City, scoring three three-pointers in the first four minutes as the Spartans jumped out to an early 11-5 lead. 

The Spartans extended their lead to 11 after an and-1 layup put them up 39-28 with just under four minutes to play in the half, but the Bears narrowed the deficit on a 10-1 run to go into the half trailing 40-38.

The game remained within 5 points for the majority of the second half, but WashU finally pulled away from their opponents with eight minutes to play. A 17-6 run gave WashU an 87-77 lead, and solid free-throw shooting enabled the Bears to hold on for a much-needed 92-80 victory.

First-year Josh Kim set a career high in points against Case Western. (Bri Nitsberg | Managing Photo Editor)

WashU’s bench excelled in the win, with Kim and senior guard Will Grudzinski combining for 34 points off the bench. Kim logged a career-best 21 points, while fellow point guard Oliff added a career-high 23 points alongside eight rebounds. Like on Friday, the Bears’ guards excelled once again, with the pair of Kim and Oliff forming a formidable partnership.

“[Kim]’s been dynamic, and we started playing him alongside Yogi [Oliff]. It’s taken a little bit of a load off Yogi at a time,” Juckem said Friday. “Yogi plays with maximum, he empties his tank, and he’s in a great mind frame right now … Josh [Kim] has taken a little off the ball-handling off of him, and together, that’s a pretty nice dynamic duo on the floor.”

After a pair of home victories, the Bears return to the road next weekend to take on No. 22 New York University and Brandeis University, the two teams right ahead of WashU in the UAA standings. After losing to both teams in St. Louis earlier this season, the Bears will look to avenge their losses, likely needing at least one win to maintain their playoff positioning heading into the final weekend of the season.