Senior Drake Kindsvater goes for a contested lay-up during a regular season game. (Sam Powers | Managing Photo Editor)

Fifteen minutes into the second round of the 2025 NCAA Division III Tournament, No. 17 WashU men’s basketball sat tied 22-22 with Franklin College on March 8. When the final buzzer sounded 25 minutes later, WashU was up 29 points and headed to the Sweet 16 for the second time in two years.

Despite losing in the first round of last year’s Sweet 16 to Trine University, the Bears not only draw motivation from the loss but also from sticking to their process: taking it moment by moment. 

“We don’t talk about it a lot honestly as a group, winning a national championship and all that, because we’re just so focused on the moment,” senior Hayden Doyle said. “[We] definitely draw motivation from last year and we’re really excited to be in this position.”

WashU will face off against No. 22 Wisconsin Lutheran College on March 14 at 7:00 p.m., which has a 27-3 overall record and was the runner up in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. The Warriors scraped through the first two rounds, defeating No. 11 Calvin University by 12 points before narrowly beating No. 2 The University of Wisconsin–Platteville in a 75-73 overtime win in the second round. WashU beat Wisconsin Lutheran 71-68 in an overtime thriller in last year’s first round of the tournament, and 2025’s rematch comes with a spot in the national quarterfinals on the line.

First round: WashU v. Central College

The Bears started off the tournament with a win against Central College, 82-75 on March 7. Despite a solid six-point lead to start the game for WashU, the Lions responded with an aggressive offense, tying the game multiple times.

Throughout the first half, the Bears’ shots were not falling, with three shots made out of 16 3-pointer attempts. 

“The one thing in basketball you can’t control is shots,” senior Yogi Oliff said. “We always talk about the process. If we’re taking good shots, we want to keep doing that and we like our chances.”

With six minutes left in the half, the Lions broke the third tie of the game with a 3-pointer. Slowly the Lions began to break away, leaving WashU behind at 35-28 entering halftime.

“We’ve been in these moments before so we’re not fazed. We just keep going, keep playing hard, and keep trusting ourselves,” Doyle said. “We started out not making a lot of shots but our confidence never wavered.”

In the second half, the Bears began consistently wearing down the Lions and returned with 12 minutes left to go. WashU’s depth was on full display during the second half with 24 bench points, triple Central’s total number of bench points. With the Lions worn out, the Bears secured a comfortable lead and an 82-75 win.

Doyle led the Bears in scoring with 24 points and was followed by senior Drake Kindsvater with 15 and stand-out first-year Connor May with 14. Kindsvater led the Bears in rebounds with seven.

Despite WashU shooting 50.8% from the field, the Bears had more shot attempts, with 61 attempts to the Lions’ 48. WashU also tied Central with 38 points in the paint and were perfect from the free throw line.

The Bears also had consistent playing time across players, with Doyle playing the most: 37 minutes. In comparison, the Lions kept three players in for the full 40, most notably All-American center Joshua Van Gorp, the leading scorer with 39 points. 

“Our goal was to make it a 40-minute battle. We knew [Van Gorp] wasn’t going to come off the floor and we were going to have to just try to wear him out,” head coach Pat Juckem said.

Junior Will Grundzinski drives past a defender during a conference match-up. (Ella Giere | Photo Editor)

Second round: WashU v. Franklin College

Twenty-four hours later, the Bears faced off against Franklin for the first time in program history, with the Bears mauling the Grizzly Bears 83-54. Though WashU established an early eight-point lead a little over three minutes into the game, Franklin was able to claw its way back. Franklin tied up the game at 22 points apiece with five minutes left in the half — the only time that the game would sit level.

The Bears went on an 11-point run to put them up 33-22 with 59 seconds left. Entering halftime, WashU sat comfortably ahead, 36-24. 

“[During halftime,] it was a lot of reinforcement, we felt if we just kept kind of sticking to our plan and playing the way we were that eventually we’d kind of separate a little bit more,” Doyle said.

In the second half, Franklin scored, but it wasn’t enough, as the Bears continued to extend their lead. With two minutes left, WashU led 80-50 and only allowed four more Franklin points to end the game with a dominant 83-54 victory.

Doyle led the Bears in scoring with 15 points and was followed by Davis with 14 and Kindsvater with 11. Kindsvater led the Bears in rebounds with 13.

WashU dominated the game, scoring 36 points in the paint to Franklin’s 22, scoring 20 fast break points to Franklin’s six, and scoring 42 points off of the bench to Franklin’s 14.

“We want to be just a team you don’t enjoy playing against,” Juckem said. “I think that that can take a toll on teams when they really have to work, when scoring is difficult, and then we’re making them defend.”

WashU also held the Grizzly Bears to just 29.4% on field goals and 17.6% outside of the arc — in the first half, the Grizzly Bears only made two 3-pointers out of 13 shots.

WashU’s offensive efficiency was on full display, with the Bears shooting 55.6% from the field and 45.8% from the 3-point range, better than the Bears’ season averages of 48.6% and 39.1%, respectively. WashU also led in assists with 22 to Franklin’s seven.

With the wins, the Bears are devoting their Spring Break toward preparing for their second Sweet 16 appearance in as many years. After last year’s loss to Trine —  a school which went on to win the national championship game — the Bears now travel to La Crosse, Wisconsin to face off against Wisconsin Lutheran. The winner of that matchup will go up against one of the best programs in D-III, either No. 5 The University of Wisconsin–La Crosse or No. 9 Illinois Wesleyan University.

“These guys [at WashU] are ballers. This is what they want to do. I think there are some teams that would rather be on Spring Break but not these guys,” Juckem said. “These guys want to continue to push the envelope and how far can we take this.”

Junior Sports Editor Eliza Stulman and Managing Sports Editor Lewis Rand contributed reporting.

This article was updated on March 10.