The Washington University men’s basketball team felt a bit of deja vu this past weekend as they squared off against Carnegie Mellon University and Case Western Reserve University for the second time in two weeks. This time, it was the Bears venturing out and playing in enemy territory instead of possessing home court advantage.

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Freshman forward Justin Hardy goes up for a layup against a Carnegie Mellon University defender Jan. 25. Hardy scored 11 of the Bears’ 16 points against Case Western Reserve University on the road Sunday. Wash. U. defeated Case Western 66-63.

Prior to this weekend’s play, the Red and Green found themselves in a three-way tie with the University of Chicago and Emory University for first place in the UAA at a 5-2 conference record. With Chicago dropping a contest this weekend, Wash. U. and Emory took the lead after play.

The first opponent in Wash. U.’s way was Carnegie Mellon Friday in Pittsburgh. Following the opening tip won by Wash. U., Carnegie Mellon nailed the first three points of the game off a turnover by junior guard Jonathan Arenas. The first Wash. U. basket was scored on their next possession by freshman guard Justin Hardy.

The first half would continue to play out as each team tried to outmatch the other. Despite the hard play from both teams in an attempt to control the pace of the game, Carnegie Mellon managed to scrape out on top after the first ten minutes, leading by six points.

Unfazed, Wash. U. tried its hardest to keep the game close, but never got any closer than two points before halftime. Wash. U. did a good job of scoring to trim the lead, but Carnegie Mellon always answered with a conversion of its own. The first half would end with the Bears down by six, 42-36.

The second half started with a resurgence by Wash. U., as the Bears managed to crawl up the scoreboard until Hardy’s dunk four minutes in tied the game at 45. After exchanging a few baskets, Wash. U. went on a 10-0 run that would result in a comfortable nine-point lead that would end up fluctuating for the rest of the game.

Carnegie Mellon, refusing to stay down, kept pace with Wash. U. until it tied the game at 82 with a minute left to go. After a timeout taken by Wash. U., Hardy recovered his own rebound from a layup attempt and later muscled it home to give his team a two-point lead with 30 seconds left. After some exchanged free throws by both teams, Wash. U. maintained its two-point lead with 12 seconds to go. Off the inbound pass, Carnegie Mellon rushed it down the court and nailed a field goal to tie the game with just six seconds left.

After a final timeout by Wash. U., it was up to one last play. The inbound pass ended up in the hands of junior guard Matt Nester, who ran the span of the court and pulled up. As the game clock hit zero, the ball fell through the basket, giving the Bears a dramatic 87-85 win.

Hardy scored a game-high 25 points, followed closely by sophomore guard Jack Nolan with 22. Nester and Arenas also scored in double digits with 15 and 10 points, respectively. Overall, Wash. U. shot an impressive 54.2 percent from the field, 62.5 percent from three, outrebounded Carnegie Mellon by nine and converted an insane 22 second-chance points.

Sunday, Case was the first to strike with a lay-in within the first minute of the game. They took that initial momentum and used to manifest a 20-8 lead halfway into the period. Undeterred, Wash. U. managed to crawl up the scoreboard to cut the deficit to seven points by the end of the first half.

Knowing they had to pick up the pace coming out of the locker room, Wash. U. wasted almost no time as junior forward DeVaughn Rucker nailed the Red and Green’s first three points of the half. This would be followed by Hardy sinking a three of his own to trim the lead to just one. Wash. U. would end up taking the lead following an and-one by Hardy a couple of possessions later, who then followed that with another three-pointer to give his team a five-point lead.

This portion of the second half was highlighted by Wash. U. controlling the pace of the game, always at least with a one-point cushion. Case, knowing that it still had a shot to take the game, never backed down, however, and managed to cut Wash. U.’s lead to two points with 12 seconds left in the contest.

Following the intentional foul to stop the clock, senior center Marcus Meyer drained one of his two free throw attempts to make it a three-point lead with nine seconds to go. This gave Case a good chance to tie the game if they were to make a three-pointer of their own. Following the missed second free throw by Meyer, Case rushed it across the court and pulled up for a three, missing but grabbing the offensive board. The second chance also clunked off the right side of the rim, securing a 66-63 Red and Green win.

The Bears were buoyed Sunday by another dominant performance by Hardy, who scored a game-high 26 points and hauled in a game-high eight rebounds. Rucker also added 13 points for his team’s cause and added two steals to his stat line. Overall, Wash. U. shot 40.7 percent from the field, 44.4 percent from the arc and out-assisted Case by seven.

After these two thrillers, Wash. U. will look to calibrate itself in preparation for its hardest weekend yet. The Bears face their fellow first-place foe Emory Friday and second-place University of Rochester Sunday.