Senior Yogi Oliff goes for a layup in their first round matchup against Transylvania. (Bri Nitsberg | Managing Photo Editor)

On Nov. 15, the WashU men’s basketball team beat the University of St. Thomas (Texas) 54-53 in an instant classic, with WashU sophomore forward Connor May’s late layup securing a nail-biting victory for the Bears. When the two teams met again in the third round of the NCAA Division III tournament on  March 13, the game once again came down to the wire.

This time, however, St. Thomas pulled out the win. The Celts, who have not lost a single game since their defeat to WashU in November, never trailed in the rematch. St. Thomas weathered an 11-3 WashU run in the final 90 seconds, but the Bears’ furious late comeback attempt wasn’t enough to save their season. St. Thomas survived with a 65-63 win to advance to the program’s first-ever Elite Eight and eliminate the Bears in the Sweet 16. 

The loss ends WashU’s season with a 20-8 record, capping off the program’s fourth straight 20-win season and fifth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. 

“We’ve had an incredible journey; this year’s been an absolute blast. It’s been filled with some ups and downs, some great wins and tough losses,” head coach Pat Juckem said after the loss. “What immediately we go to is just my gratitude and appreciation for just being around really incredible young men who bring the best out of me, the best out of each other.”

The game, on St. Thomas’ home court in Houston, Texas, featured two teams playing with a lot of momentum. St. Thomas entered riding a 25-game win streak, while the Bears had won seven straight games, including wins over the highly ranked University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. 

St. Thomas, though, was the hotter team from the start. The Celts quickly accumulated an 11-4 lead five minutes into the game, as WashU struggled to hit shots. The teams battled throughout the remainder of the first half, with WashU tying the game four times, but St. Thomas took a 34-28 lead into halftime. Normally a sharpshooting team, WashU struggled to score in the opening period, shooting 9-for-26 from field goal and 3-for-11 from 3-point range.

The Celts extended their lead in the opening minutes of the second half to as much as 12, but 9 points by first-year guard Theo Rocca in a span of three minutes narrowed the deficit to 50-45 with just under nine minutes to go. The Celts, however, recovered, and an 8-point surge extended their lead back to 12 with 4:41 on the clock.

The teams exchanged baskets over the next few minutes, before a St. Thomas layup gave the Celts a 64-52 lead with 93 seconds to play. WashU finally found a spark late in the game, closing the gap to just 65-62 on a 3-pointer by May with nine seconds to play. 

After a St. Thomas missed free-throw and a pair of fouls, junior Ryan Cohen stepped up to the free-throw line for two shots, though the Bears still needed 3 points with just two seconds to play. After making the first, Cohen missed the second to create a putback opportunity, but the Bears were unable to corral the rebound as the clock hit double zeroes. The late run was too little, too late for the Bears, and WashU fell agonizingly short of pulling out the improbable come-from-behind victory.

WashU entered the 2025-26 season with lofty goals, but the team was unable to replicate last season’s run to the Final Four. The Bears made it as high as No. 4 in the D-III rankings during a 10-1 non-conference start, but they were inconsistent for much of their University Athletic Association (UAA) season. WashU finally found its groove during a five-game winning streak to finish third in the UAA. 

“I’m so proud of how we turned out, fighting through adversity,” senior forward Will Grudzinski said Friday night. “Especially in our drought there early on during conference [play], we showed up … We gave effort, we played hard, and at the end of the day, that’s what you can give.”

In the regular season, the Bears recorded upset wins over then-No. 1 Emory University and then-No. 4 University of Chicago, two teams that advanced to the D-III Elite Eight. In the postseason, WashU dominated Transylvania University and pulled out a win over the No. 21 University of Wisconsin–Whitewater to advance to a third-straight Sweet 16. 

Though WashU fell short against St. Thomas, the game was a testament to the team’s bright future. Of the six Bears who played more than 25 minutes, only one — senior point guard Yogi Oliff — is graduating. Underclassmen Rocca and May led the Bears in scoring with 18 and 15 points, respectively. 

However, the Bears will lose a group of four players — Oliff, Grudzinski, senior center Calvin Kapral, and graduate guard Kyle Beedon — who helped lead the Bears during four straight tournament runs. Though the four will move on from the team, Oliff said the relationships and memories will stick with them.

“I have a lot of gratitude to the coaching staff for recruiting me here. WashU is just a special place,” Oliff said. “Like we just talked about in the locker room, basketball is super important to us, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s small. It’s about the relationships I’ve built and the brothers that I’ve been able to hang out with. I’ll call these guys my brothers for life.”