“The thing about the UAA is that anybody can beat anybody on a given night, so really taking care of your home floor and beating the teams that you should beat is what you have to do to win the UAA. You’re going up against good teams, and if you split, that’s basically what you’re looking for,” junior co-captain Aaron Thompson said.

Senior Tyler Nading dropped 21 points, and Thompson scored 19 to lead the Red and Green, and both junior Zach Kelly and sophomore Caleb Knepper also scored in double figures.

Despite entering the game with a 4-8 overall record, the Spartans stunned the home crowd with a 20-12 lead midway through the first half. Senior guard Steve Young was the main driving force for Case, hitting his first three shots from beyond the arc. Young finished with 11 points in the half and 21 points overall.

“We knew that they were going to come out tough. Every team that we’ve played this year has come out knowing that we’re the team they want to beat and that they come out and play differently than they show on paper,” Nading said. “We knew Case wasn’t going to be the 4-8 team that they were, and true to form, in the first half, they hit just about ever shot they took. We weren’t surprised.”

The Bears responded to this deficit with a 10-0 run, aided by four points from junior John Wolf and five from freshman Dylan Richter, but soon found themselves down again after Case’s own 7-0 run with seven minutes left in the half.

Thompson scored the final basket before halftime, cutting Washington’s deficit to four points heading into the locker room.

Coming out from the locker room, the Spartans were a different team. Taking advantage of their 0-5 start to the half, Thompson scored Wash. U.’s first seven points in an 11-2 run, reclaiming the lead, 41-38. By the 12:14 mark, the Bears had built a double-digit lead.

“We went into the locker room at halftime and talked about what we needed to do, and then we came out and did much better in the second half. A lot of it was defensively,” Nading said.

As Case Western narrowed the lead to just three points, Kelly hit a layup that sparked a 13-4 run, putting the Bears ahead 76-64 and putting the game out of reach.

Sunday morning’s game against Emory University was much less of a contest. The Bears scored 12 unanswered points to start the game, eight of which came from Thompson. All 14 of his points came in the first half, hitting three of four from three-point range.

“When our guys do a good job of moving the ball around, setting picks for me and getting me open, it’s pretty easy to knock down shots. I have to give [my teammates] all the credit. They do a great job of getting me open and giving me the ball where I need it,” Thompson said.

The Eagles hit their first shot with 15:43 left in the first half but could not escape a 20-point deficit after a pair of free throws from Nading. Senior Sean Wallis and Thompson then hit back-to-back threes to prevent any chance of an Emory comeback, stretching the lead, 40-18.

In the second half, Knepper scored 10 points to extend the lead to 32 as the Bears coasted to their 13th win of the season. Nading, Wallis, Thompson and Knepper all scored in double figures.

With this 79-58 win, Washington University holds a 42-3 record at home since the 2005-2006 season. Coach Mark Edwards also recorded his 490th win as head coach.

The Bears will be away from home over the next two weekends, beginning this Friday Jan. 23, against the University of Rochester (9-2, 2-1 UAA). The team then faces No. 18 Carnegie Mellon University (11-2, 2-1 UAA).