In its last weekend-long road trip of the regular season, the No. 24 Washington University men’s basketball team won one and lost one to clinch first place in the University Athletic Association for the season, and a spot in the NCAA Division III tournament.

On Sunday, Washington University took on New York University, the second place team in the conference. Heading into the contest, NYU was only a game behind the Bears in the UAA standings. With a 74-68 win, Wash. U clinched its 11th UAA championship in program history.

NYU started fast, jumping out to a 16-7 lead after four minutes. The Red and Green came back quickly with a 13-0 run of their own. Sophomore Chris Klimek continued his strong play from the game before with six points during that stretch. Senior Dylan Richter hit a three-pointer at the end of the half to give the Bears a 46-40 lead.

In the second half, Wash. U. led for the first 15 minutes until NYU tied it at 62. With two minutes to go, the Violet had taken the lead, 68-63, but the Bears scored the last eleven points to win the game. Junior Rob Burnett scored five straight points to give them the lead.

Richter led the team with 17 points, which also moved him into 19th place in scoring in Washington University history. Freshman Brayden Teuscher and Klimek had twelve points each, and Burnett chipped in eleven.

Friday evening, Wash. U lost to Brandeis University in Massachusetts 79-69 to see its conference lead dwindle from two games to one. Klimek and Burnett each tallied career highs in points, with 22 and 18 respectively, but it was not enough to hold off the Judges.

The first half was back and forth, with each team taking the lead three times, and going into halftime Brandeis held a two point lead, 39-37. Klimek led the way with 12 of his points in the first half. The Bears pressured Brandeis into five turnovers in the first half, but the Judges shot 41 percent from three and 90 percent from the free-throw line in the half.

In the second half Brandeis started fast, jumping out to a 14-point lead after eight minutes, 57-43. Wash. U. fought back with a 13-2 run, getting the deficit down to three 59-56, after a sophomore Tim Cooney lay-up with seven minutes left in the game. The Bears never led in the second half, but did tie up the score once more at 62 with four minutes to go after a basket by Klimek.

Brandeis pulled away down the stretch, making eight of eleven free throws to close out the game. Brandeis shot 45 percent from the field for the game, and 52 percent from three. The Bears only made two three-pointers in the game, missing all of them in the second half and shooting 13% percent in the game.

The Bears will finish out the regular season next Saturday at rival University of Chicago.