The University of Chicago pulled off an upset in front of a packed house as Washington University fell 76-53 at the Ratner Center in Chicago on Saturday.

The Bears were picked to defend their UAA title at the beginning of the season before All-American junior Jaimie McFarlin suffered a season-ending injury. Meanwhile, the Maroons were ranked in the bottom half of the conference. With the loss, the Bears share second place with Rochester in the UAA. The Lady Bears had held at least part of the UAA title for the past 10 years.

Wash. U. was also riding high from the two wins this previous weekend over Brandeis University and New York University where four Bears scored in the double-digits. The Bears were also solid from long range last weekend as they had nine threes in each game.

But Saturday was not their day as the Bears suffered a scoring drought and only shot 24 percent from the three-point line. Sophomore Zo‰ Unruh was the only player with a double-digit contribution.

“We couldn’t really get into the flow of the game,” said freshman Alex Hoover.

Unruh led the squad with 14 points followed by sophomore Janice Evans with eight points and 10 boards. Junior Jill Brandt had seven while Hoover had six.

“We made them scratch and claw for things,” said University of Chicago Head Coach Aaron Roussell on the D-3 Hoops’ Online Radio Broadcast.

Wash. U.’s only lead of the night was by two points with 17:28 left in the first period. Chicago stole the show with 46 percent field goal shooting and several turnovers, which the Maroons converted into a lead. The Maroons had 17 points off of turnovers and had 18 second-chance points compared to the Bears’ five points off turnovers and 13 second-chance points.

“Chicago couldn’t miss,” said Evans.

Chicago stormed through the defense with an 11 point run leaving the Bears scoreless for a period of 4:53 until junior Shanna-Lei Dacanay hit an 18-foot jumper with 9:44 left on the clock in the first.

The Bears showed some signs of life as junior Halsey Ward and Unruh had back-to-back three-pointers which launched a 10-0 run. The run trimmed the lead to 16. But Chicago quickly snuffed out the spark of the Wash. U. offensive machine with six of the 10 following points.

The 21 point lead built by Chicago in the first period was too much for the Bears to overcome though they held their own in the second, scoring 37 points compared to Chicago’s 39. “We definitely didn’t go down without a fight,” said Hoover.

The Bears will advance to the NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament as announced on Sunday night by the NCAA Selection Committee. The 63 team bracket will be announced Monday morning at 8 a.m. on www.ncaasports.com.

The basketball team has drawn many comparisons to the volleyball team which lost the UAA title game but won the national championship in 2007.

“We’re all very excited,” said Ward. “Once you’re in, that’s all that matters. We have all the potential in the world to do that.”

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