Ben Gottesdiener | Student Life

Chris Klimek comes down with a rebound last weekend in a win over Emory. The Bears traveled to Emory on Sunday to take on the Eagles, and once again came away with a 92-83 victory. Klimek had 11 points for the Bears.

Senior Dylan Richter led the way for the Bears with 20 points, including his 1000th point as a Bear. His three-pointer with a minute left cut the lead to 88-80 and put him over that milestone, becoming the 20th player to do so in school history.

Wash. U had an early 16-13 lead, but Rochester’s next five shots were from beyond the arc, which gave them a lead they would never relinquish. By the half, Rochester had a lead of 45-34 and had made 9-14 three-pointers. The Bears had nine turnovers in the first half, and Rochester efficiently scored 15 points off those turnovers.

With thirteen minutes to go in the second half, Rochester had increased their lead to 20 but the Red and Green stormed back. Three-pointers by Richter, freshman Brayden Teuscher, sophomore Chris Klimek and junior Max Needle keyed the charge as the Bears reduced the deficit to six with 5:32 to play.

Rochester was able to withstand the run and made their free throws, 20 for the half, on the way to preserving the ten point win. For the game they shot 63% from the three-point line, and had a 27-10 advantage in points off turnovers and only seven turnovers to Wash. U’s 17.

Klimek had a career high 20 points off 8-10 shooting, freshman Matt Palucki had nine, and Needle had a season-high eight in only five minutes off the bench.

—

Sunday, the men’s basketball team finished strong on their road tour in Atlanta against No. 17 Emory University. With five players in double figures, the Bears’ 92-83 victory snapped Emory’s 17-game home winning streak.

Emory sprang to the early lead, holding a seven point advantage with 13 minutes remaining in the first half. The Bears fought back and after a layup by Dylan Richter with 16 seconds left, they held a 10 point lead going into halftime, 49-39.

After a three by sophomore Alan Aboona, Wash. U. had their largest lead of the game, 13, two minutes into the second half. With only a couple minutes to go Emory got the lead down to two on two occasions, but the Bears weathered the storm and made their free throws to preserve the nine point victory.

Aboona led Wash. U with 16, Senior Alex Toth had 15 despite fouling out, and Teuscher, Palucki and Klimek all broke double figures as well. Because of foul trouble for the team, head coach Mark Edwards was forced to use the bench, but they responded well, outscoring Emory’s bench 40-9. The Red and Green also won the rebounding battle 42-28, but their turnover woes continued as they finished with 18.

The Bears remained tied for first in the UAA with New York University at 7-2. Their last home games will be Friday and Sunday next week against Case Western Reserve and Carnegie Mellon as they look to create some distance in the standings.

Freshman Maddy Scheppers scored 13 of her 15 points in the second half and recorded ten rebounds for her first career double-double, and freshman Melissa Gilkey added 19 points and seven rebounds as the Bears avenged last Friday’s 72-70 loss to Rochester in the WU Field House.

Gilkey scored six of Wash. U.’s first ten points on the night as the Red and Green rushed out to a 16-9 lead to open the game. The Yellow Jackets slowly chipped away at the lead over the next 11 minutes until with 1:08 to play, they took their first lead, 24-23, on a three-pointer. Rochester led 26-24 at the half.

Coming out of the half, the freshmen went to work; Gilkey and Scheppers each hit a three-pointer and a layup to give Wash. U. a 34-31 lead that ballooned to as big as 39-33 following another jumper by Scheppers.

Rochester fought back to cut the deficit to two points, but Gilkey’s second three of the night and third of her career gave the Bears some breathing room. Although Wash. U.’s struggles from the free-throw line continued (12-21 for the game), seniors Bethany Morrison and Dani Hoover connected from the line in the final minute to preserve the victory.

—

On Sunday afternoon, the Bears fell 82-72 to Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. Wash. U. was dominated on the boards 46-33 en route to their third conference loss.

Emory jumped out to an early 19-9 lead as the Bears struggled out of the gate. Head coach Nancy Fahey went to her bench early, and sophomore Lucy Montgomery responded with ten points in six minutes. However, Wash. U. entered halftime trailing 41-29.

Emory pushed their lead to as big as 16 with 18:41 to play, but the Bears scrapped their way back into contention. Hoover and freshman Alyssa Johanson got the Bears going, and Morrison hit a three with 6:29 to play to cut the Eagles’ lead to 69-68.

However, that was as close as they got as the teams traded baskets until Emory’s Savannah Morgan hit a three to open the lead to six with 2:54 to go. The Eagles hit four free throws down the stretch to ice the game.

The Red and Green (16-4, 6-3 UAA) look to bounce back next weekend against Case Western Reserve University on Friday and Carnegie Mellon University on Sunday.

Ben Gottesdiener | Student Life

Claire Schaeperkoetter drives past an Emory Univesity defender on Sunday. The Bears rebounded from a loss Friday night to No. 5 University of Rochester, to beat Emory 83-80.

The Bears defeated their rival, the Emory University Eagles, on Sunday afternoon. The game was hard-fought from start to finish and went into overtime before the Bears prevailed, 83-80.

Wash. U. went on a 10-2 run to start the game as captain and senior guard Dani Hoover hit two three-pointers.

“We knew it was going to be a tough game,” Hoover said. “They’re a run-and-jump team, very feisty, take a lot of three-pointers, and they’re dangerous when they get hot. We really wanted to come out and play our game and not let them be the aggressors.”

The Eagles refused to go away early, outdoing the Bears’ early run with an 11-0 run of their own. The rest of the half was back and forth, with the biggest lead of the game, 29-20, going to the Red and Green with 6:39 left in the first half. Wash. U. entered halftime with a 40-37 lead.

Both teams exchanged buckets to start the second half, but with 12 minutes left in the game, Emory took the lead on a three-pointer. The Bears were able to retake the lead with 10:51 remaining on a layup by freshman guard Maddy Scheppers, who led the team with a career-high 19 points.

“I think I was just taking my open shots,” Scheppers said.

The Eagles were able to take the lead again, however, and stretched it to six points with 5:15 remaining. With three minutes left in the game, Hoover hit a three-pointer to tie the score at 72 apiece.

“Sometimes it’s not how many points; it’s when they are,” Nancy Fahey, head coach, said of Hoover’s performance. “That was a big shot. We gave her the ball late in the game, and she’s small, and she wreaks some havoc out there.”

With 40 seconds left in the game, freshman forward Alyssa Johanson hit a jump shot to give the Bears a two-point lead.

“Four [freshmen] are receiving a lot of playing time in significant moments,” Fahey said. “They’re growing. I tell them right now that there are no freshmen on the team because their experience is way beyond that. We’ve had injuries—we’ve had that— but people don’t care. We have competition to play.”

However, Emory hit two foul shots with eight seconds to go to send the game into overtime.

In overtime the Bears came out strong and led 78-74 with 3:37 to play. The Eagles, however, took the lead after Emory’s Misha Jackson made a layup while being fouled and then hit the ensuing free throw. However, shortly after, Johanson was sent to the line, where she sank both of her free throws.

With nine seconds remaining, Wash. U. led 83-80, and Emory had the ball. The Bears stood strong and were able to force an errant three-pointer at the buzzer that fell short.

On Friday night the Bears faced the No. 5 University of Rochester Yellowjackets, who came into the game undefeated. The game was strongly contested and culminated with a last second effort by freshman Melissa Gilkey. Hoover led the team with 17 points and seven rebounds, and Johanson had a career-high 12 points.

“They’re a good defensive team and they’re a good offensive team,” Fahey said. “They took some things away from us, and they move the ball really well on offense. I was really proud of the fact that, yeah, we got behind, and good teams make good runs, but we made a good run right back.”

After trailing 5-3 in the first minute of the game, the Bears fired back and went on an 11-0 run. The Yellowjackets, however, later went on a 9-0 run to tie the game at 18 apiece. At the end of the first half the Bears trailed by five.

Rochester came out firing in the second half and extended their lead to 51-39. However, with 13 minutes remaining the Bears forced three turnovers to cut the Yellowjackets lead to six. The rest of the game was a back-and-forth battle with the teams trading buckets.

With 1:10 left in the game, Gilkey evened the score with a layup. With 19 seconds remaining the Yellowjackets retook the lead with a second-chance layup. Wash. U. was unable to convert on scoring chances when it got the ball back, but forced a turnover on the inbounds with three and half seconds left. Gilkey missed the basket on her final shot, and with the miss Wash. U. fell to 14-3 on the season. This was the first time in Rochester’s history that it defeated the Bears in the Field House.

“Of the top 10 teams in the country, three of them are UAA teams,” Fahey said. “It’s probably the toughest I’ve seen it. Losing at home certainly is tough, but we’ve got to go on the road and kind of fight back. We’re a very young team and so we’re really just trying to concentrate on the next game.”

Next up for the Bears is a two-game road trip to face the University of Rochester and Emory University again. The Bears play the Yellowjackets in Rochester on Friday at 6 p.m. EST and Emory in Atlanta at 2 p.m. EST on Sunday.

With additional reporting by Kurt Rohrbeck.

The women sit in third out of seven teams while the men are in fourth place.

Both teams have already contributed some strong performances.

The men’s and women’s ‘A’ 200-yard freestyle relay teams finished second to Emory University. The women’s team of junior Katrina Stridh, freshman Allison Siegel, freshman Chi Pham and junior Amy Vanlishout finished 1.98 seconds behind, while the men’s team of senior David Chao, sophomore Mark Minowitz, senior Kartik Anjur and sophomore Brendan Morin finished 1.12 seconds back.

With the second place finish, the women’s team broke a school record and set a provisionally qualifying time for the 2011 NCAA Division III Championships on Mar. 23.

Pham recorded a 2:05.36 in the 200-yard individual medley and led most of the way, but fell just .03 seconds short of first place Molly Evans of Carnegie Mellon University in a race where four swimmers finished faster than the UAA record time and automatically qualified for the national championships.

Chao tied for second in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.93, .48 seconds off the winning pace.

Emory University has built a commanding lead in the points’ standings for both men’s and women’s sides. Competition resumes at 10 a.m. (EST). (Sahil Patel)

Paul Goedeke | Student Life

Junior Dylan Richter takes the ball up the court in a Jan. 30 match against Case Western. Richter scored in double figures in both games for the Bears over the weekend, road losses to Emory University and the University of Rochester.

Two road losses, a 92-67 defeat at the hands of Emory University and an 83-78 loss to the University of Rochester dropped the team to 11-11 (5-6 UAA) and likely out of playoff contention.

The Bears suffered their second loss of the weekend last Sunday at No. 22 Rochester. Senior co-captains Caleb Knepper and Spencer Gay led the Red and Green with six points each early in the first half, taking a 14-4 advantage at the 14:21 mark.

Minutes later, Knepper’s 3-pointer extended the lead to 21-6.

“The beginning of the game, we pushed the ball a lot more, and they had trouble keeping up with our intensity,” Knepper said.

The Bears started the game shooting nine of 14 from the field while limiting the Yellowjackets to just two of eight. However, Rochester sank five 3-pointers over the final 12 minutes of the half to cut the Bears’ halftime lead to just 38-35.

Gay led all scorers with 16 points in the first half, while Knepper added 12 points from four three-pointers.

“It [was a] great basketball game; we came out really fast and took a 15-point lead and hung on for the first half,” head coach Mark Edwards said.

A little more than three minutes into the second half, Rochester took its first lead of the game off a 3-pointer. Sophomore Ben Hoener answered with a triple of his own to tie the game at 45 and spark a 10-2 Wash. U. run over the next four minutes.

Rochester responded with a 14-5 run to take a 61-60 lead.

“In the second half, [Rochester] came out really strong and broke our back and then nip and tuck all the way down to the end,” Edwards said.

Junior captain Dylan Richter and freshman Tim Cooney’s 3-pointers helped even the game, but Rochester went on a 7-0 run with 2:30 to play.

“They fought back on their own court and got back into it and took the lead,” Knepper said. “We couldn’t get back the momentum we had in the first half.”

Gay scored a team-high 21 points, and Richter added 20 points and seven rebounds in the loss.

“Spencer had a really nice game for us, hit some big shots,” Knepper said.

Emory jumped out to an 18-10 lead in the Bears’ lost last Friday. Wash. U. sank two baskets to bring the score to 18-14, but the Eagles drained four three-pointers during a 16-2 run over the next four minutes to take control of the game.

“The game really didn’t go well for us,” Knepper said. “We came out really hard, but we didn’t match their intensity. They made a couple of tough shots; they were hitting threes, and we were hitting twos.”

With five minutes left in the first half, the Bears finished an 8-0 run with a 3-pointer from sophomore Max Needle to cut the deficit to 38-26. However, Emory responded, extending the lead back to 18 points going into the second half, a lead that would seal their victory.

“We came out to play, but Emory was just clicking on all cylinders and hitting some big shots, and we couldn’t recover,” Edwards said. “They played like at team that’s contending for the championship.”

Gay led all Wash. U. scorers with 21 points and was one of four Bears to score in double figures in the game. Knepper had 12 points while Richter and junior Alex Toth chipped in 11 points apiece.

The Bears return home this weekend to face New York University on Friday at 8 p.m. and Brandeis University on Sunday at noon.

“The effort was there. We definitely wanted to do well, but I think it was all in the preparation. We need to work harder and [be] just a little more committed, that’s all,” head coach Kelly Stahlhuth said. “We kind of knew Rochester was a sleeper team, kind of a dark horse, so we weren’t over-confident. I think we went in mentally ready, but I don’t think we were as prepared as we could have been.”

Juniors Jaclyn Bild and Elise Sambol started the match against Rochester on a high note with an 8-2 win at second doubles, and senior Allison Dender and sophomore Natalie Tingir took third doubles 8-0. Freshman Kate Klein and junior Karina Kocemba were unable to complete the doubles sweep and fell 8-4 to Lia Weiner and Frances Tseng.

Because of rain, the matches were played indoors, but a court reservation error allowed Rochester to regroup and come away with the upset.

After winning the opening set 6-4, Klein took a 5-4 lead on Weiner when play was suspended since another group had reserved the courts for the next two hours. When play resumed, Weiner evened the set, won the tiebreaker 9-7 and clamped down to win the third set 6-1. The delay also postponed Bild’s match before the start of the third set, and Bild wound up losing the match 6-3, 3-6, 4-6.

“You could kind of tell Rochester knew that they had us where they wanted us,” Stahlhuth said. “The last sets just didn’t go the right way.”

Junior Kalee Cassady also won the first set in fifth singles before eventually falling 7-5, 5-7, 2-6. At second singles, Tseng pushed past Kocemba 6-4, 6-1.

On a bright note for the Bears, Tingir and Dender continued their dominant play during singles competition, taking fourth and sixth singles 6-2, 6-2 and 6-0, 6-1, respectively.

Placed in the consolation bracket following the loss on Friday afternoon, the Bears rallied to finish fifth in the eight-team tournament.

The Bears rebounded to win the consolation bracket. Wash. U. opened with a 6-3 victory over NYU, with the only losses coming at first doubles and second and third singles. Both singles matches came down to super-tiebreakers, but Kocemba and Bild fell 9-11 and 5-10 in respectively.

“I don’t think it [losing to Rochester] put any additional pressure on Saturday’s matches,” said Dender, the team captain. “They were two teams that were ranked behind us. We went out there the same way and had to bounce back after a tough loss, and I think we did a good job.”

Tingir and Dender continued to dominate their opponents, teaming up for an 8-3 win at third doubles and winning their singles matches 6-1, 6-3 and 6-1, 6-0, respectively.

Klein rebounded to take first singles 6-1, 6-4, and Cassady won at fifth singles in the minimum 12 games, defeating Tiffany Thong 6-0, 6-0.

The Red and Green continued to play well against Brandeis, losing just first doubles in the 6-1 win. Second and fourth singles went unfinished.

“They knew that we were kind of hurt [our pride] and thought that they had a pretty good chance of getting us…but we made sure we did it one more time,” Stahlhuth added.

Bild finally broke into the winning column in singles by taking the clinching match 6-0, 6-2 at third singles. Klein, Tingir and Dender each recorded singles wins, and, as with the doubles play all weekend, the teams of Bild/Sambol and Tingir/Dender recorded victories.

The Bears conclude the season at 3:30 p.m. Friday against McKendree University at the Tao Tennis Center and will then train in anticipation of making the NCAA tournament.

“We hope one bad loss doesn’t hurt us, and it could…We’re hoping that they’ll recognize that one day doesn’t make or break a season, but a lot of people do judge it that way,” Stahlhuth said.

NCAA tournament bids will be announced on May 10.

Courtesy of University Rowing Association

Members of Washington University men’s crew team hold the Case Cup, given to the team with the most overall points, after winning it in the URA championship.

Just 1.6 seconds and two points separated the Washington University men’s crew team from a race victory and the overall points trophy. When the Washington University men’s crew team reached the end of the final race in the University Rowing Association championships, it had earned both.

The Wash. U. victory over Rochester in the men’s Heavyweight Varsity 4 earned 12 points to Rochester’s nine, giving them the needed two-point boost for the overall win.

“In the end it came down to a few races where the varsity team came in first,” senior co-captain Derek Turnbull said.

Co-captain Jewell Thomas, juniors Andrew Warshauer and Ryan Bowers, coxswain Rui Hu and freshman Eamon Callison represented Wash. U. in the crucial Heavyweight 4. They made an important sprint halfway through the course, overtaking the squad from the University of Chicago.

“Halfway through, we made our move,” Thomas said. “We crept up on them. It was a very well-rowed race; Chicago and Rochester were ahead of us at the start.”

“We just have a really young team,” sophomore Miranda Timonen said. “This is a building year for us. We’re very pleased with how we performed against Rochester.”

Like the men’s team, the women saw the regatta as a positive indicator for the rest of the season.

In the women’s competition, the Bears finished in second behind the Yellowjackets, who claimed the top spot in each varsity race. The Varsity 8 proved to be the most exciting race, as the Lady Bears edged Rochester’s B boat by 0.7 seconds for second place. According to Timonen, Wash. U. made its move about 250 meters from the finish, erasing a boat-length deficit to overtake the Yellowjackets, a varsity program.

“This is sort of an opener to our official season…sort of a barometer, and were really pleased,” Timonen said. “It’s really been fantastic to see [the freshmen] develop as rowers.”

The URA represents the equivalent of a conference championship for Wash. U.’s crew squads. Schools from the University Athletic Association, including Rochester, the University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon University, competed for the title. But the URA is not officially part of the UAA or the NCAA.

The men’s overall-points trophy win left team members optimistic about future competitions.

“It’s my thought now going into this spring [that] we’re going to have one of the fastest crews that Wash. U. has seen in a long time,” Thomas said. “We have the opportunity to row in some of the high profile [regattas].”

The Bears are back in action at the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association (SIRA) Regatta in Oakridge, Tenn., on April 17.

With additional reporting by Johann Quas Hiansen

In both of the weekend’s games, the Bears grabbed control early on and never gave up the lead. Junior Alex Hoover’s 15 points paced the Bears as they routed the Rochester Yellowjackets 68-40 on Friday night at the Wash. U. Field House. They followed up with another big win against the Emory Eagles with a score of 61-47 on Sunday.

“It’s really beneficial when you’re not worrying about playing catch-up with the team,” senior co-captain Janice Evans said. “It makes you feel good about how you’re playing.”

The wins improved the Bears to 18-2 overall and 8-1 in conference as they maintained their lead over the rest of the University Athletic Association.

The majority of the first half consisted of the two teams trading blows, with an early Wash. U. run being countered by Rochester. This gave the Bears a slim 16-15 lead before Evans stole the momentum from the Yellowjackets. Evans made a jumper and then stole the ball and passed it to Hoover, who dished it right into sophomore Bethany Morrison’s hands for a three-pointer.

That sequence was the beginning of a 15-1 Bears run that senior co-captain Zoë Unruh  capped off with another three-pointer. The Red and Green took a 32-18 lead into the half, with Hoover’s 11 first-half points leading the way.

“Coach [Nancy] Fahey had talked to me before the game about how I needed to be more of a threat on offense,” Hoover said. “So I took that to heart and tried to be more aggressive, and it worked out well.”

The Bears extended their lead even farther out after halftime, as Unruh pitched in eight more points while Evans and graduate student Jaimie McFarlin both added five more. The team shot 44 percent from the field and was extremely efficient from three-point range, hitting eight of 13 shots.

With the win, the Bears successfully avenged their only conference loss of the season, which had taken place a week earlier on Rochester’s home court.

“There was for sure some extra fire,” Evans said. “We didn’t like losing. It was an ugly loss we had at their place, so to come back and do what we did was great.”

The Bears’ winning ways continued against Emory on Sunday, when the they pulled away right from the beginning. The Eagles put up no points until almost halfway through the first half, while the Red and Green dashed to a 13-0 lead. A 36-10 halftime margin gave the Bears all of the cushion they needed for the rest of the game.

McFarlin led the team with 11 points, all of which came in the first half as several of the team’s regulars sat out most of the second. The team defense was the highlight for the Bears, as eight different players recorded steals and held the Eagles to 34 percent shooting from the field. Wash. U. also forced 19 turnovers and converted 21 points.

“We take a lot of pride in trying to stop people defensively,” head coach Nancy Fahey said. “We had to adjust against Emory and we did a pretty good job.”

Wash. U. is back on the road for their next two games, as the Bears head to the Northeast for the weekend. They face Brandeis University on Friday in Waltham, Mass., followed by a contest at New York University on Sunday.

The article’s understanding of the transition from a Division III to a Division I institution is backed up by frustratingly little research—such a conversion is actually much more complicated than Gottlieb might believe. If Wash. U. did decide to support Division I athletics, the school would not be allowed to start a solitary pilot program as Gottlieb suggests. According to the official Web site of the NCAA, “Division I member institutions have to sponsor at least seven sports for men and seven for women (or six for men and eight for women) with two team sports for each gender.” Suppose that Wash. U. decided to take this step and converted all of its athletic programs. Once a school takes this step to become Division I, it is placed on probation for four years, during which time the institution is barred from giving athletic scholarships and participating in postseason play. So no, a school cannot “literally buy itself a quality Division I basketball program,” as Gottlieb suggests.

Even if becoming Division I was so simple, it must be recognized that being a Division I school does not automatically bring “glamour, glory and money.” Division I, in addition to claiming such prestigious programs as Duke and Stanford, is also the affiliation of lesser-known and undoubtedly less glamorous programs like Quinnipiac University and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

The article, in addition to misrepresenting the process of converting to Division I, critiques the current athletic program in a way that is offensive and inaccurate. Gottlieb suggests that “salary money [be] set aside for good coaches.” Gottlieb, or anyone else who shares this view, is obviously ignorant of the exceptionally high quality of the coaching staff at Wash. U. Several of Wash. U.’s coaches have coached at many levels of competition—including professional—and most would state that they prefer the balance of athletics and academics provided by a Division III institution.

Mr. Gottlieb also discusses the hypothetical upsides of having successful athletic programs, ignorant of the fact that Wash. U. already boasts one of the most storied and accomplished athletic programs in the country—of any division. The past few years alone have provided numerous examples of Wash. U.’s athletic prowess. The men’s basketball and women’s volleyball teams have both won national championships in the past year. Women’s soccer finished second place in the nation this year. (Speaking of volleyball and women’s soccer, did anyone else notice that just a few columns over from Gottlieb’s article, a bolded title read “Wash. U. to honor national champions and women’s soccer”?) The women’s basketball team, in addition to beating Division I Southern Illinois University Carbondale this year, was the national runner-up in 2009 and in 2007. The men’s tennis team won the national championship in 2008. Clearly, Wash. U. has experienced more success than many Division 1 schools could dream of.

The most logically flawed and confusing assertion made by the article is that somehow acquiring Division I athletics would magically transform Wash. U.’s admitted lack of school spirit. It is a lamentable fact that Mr. Gottlieb believes the Wash. U. community would rather support an inevitably struggling Division I team than show enthusiasm and support for the dominant programs that currently exist at our university.

Nobody is denying that Division III is different than Division I. At Wash. U., athletes are accepted into the University of their own accord, they take the same course load and are held to the same academic expectations as non-athletes, and they typically excel in and out of the classroom. Students who feel as Gottlieb does are free to transfer to schools with a more sports-centric focus, if that’s what they really want out of their college experience. Or, they can accept the fact that Division III does not mean third rate, and show our athletes some respect.

Brianne, Mik, and Tricia are sophomores in Arts & Sciences. They can be reached via e-mail at bcmonaha@wustl.edu,
mccarter@artsci.wustl, and pabrandt@wustl.edu.

Sophomore Dylan Richter scored 14 points to help defeat the University of Rochester on Friday. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

The Washington University men’s basketball team capped off a four-game road trip unscathed, highlighted by two victories this weekend against conference rivals University of Rochester and Emory University.

On Friday in New York, graduate student Sean Wallis led the squad in an 82-78 thriller over Rochester, tying his career high of 27 points and adding 10 assists.

“It was really important for us to continue this road trip with a win,” Wallis said. “I was able to get to the free-throw line and make some free throws. I wasn’t really thinking about the points or anything like that, just getting the team a win.”

The largest lead of the game was 10 points in favor of the Bears, but that lasted only 35 seconds. Bur the Bears’ smart plays and perseverance helped them escape the contest with a victory.

“We gave them a bunch of different looks that caused them problems,” head coach Mark Edwards said. “In the last few minutes of the game we didn’t have a true post on the floor. Even though our posts were playing pretty good, it just gave us a little more flexibility.”

Junior Spencer Gay chipped in with 15 points for the game, while sophomore Dylan Richter added 14.

After Friday’s win, the Bears headed to Atlanta to face Emory in a game that decided sole possession of the University Athletic Association conference lead. Drawing on experience in high-pressure situations, the Bears came away with a 65-56 win over the Eagles.

“We have an experienced team that knows what it’s like to play in this conference,” Edwards said. “They know that on Sundays you have to be just as sharp as you were Friday night or you’re going to get caught, especially when you’re playing somebody that’s already first place in the conference.”

“Knowing that the conference was on the line, I feel like it energized us a little bit,” Gay added. “One thing that we stress a lot is that the UAA championship is won on Sundays, so every Sunday we have to come out and play as hard as we can.”

With these two victories, the Bears improved their road record to 8-1 on the season, and have continued to assert their dominance away from home.

“I think it’s our ability to leave everything back in St. Louis— distractions, class,” Wallis said. “Now it will be nice to head home, play on our own court, and hopefully we will have the fans out to support us on Friday night.”

The Bears return to the Field House at 8 p.m. on Friday and noon on Sunday, and those two games will once again be against Rochester and Emory.

“It’s not going to be any walkover, and both teams are coming back ready because of what we did last weekend on their home courts,” Wallis said. “Obviously [last weekend] was a confidence builder, but at the same time, if we are not playing our game—playing well—we could come out on the other end [without the win].”