Yogi Oliff, Josh Kim Score Career Highs As WashU Bests CWRU
The Washington University in St. Louis men's basketball team defeated Case Western Reserve University 92-80 on Sunday afternoon to close out the weekend with a sweep. The Bears are now 15-7 on the year with a 5-6 mark in UAA play.
A pair of Bears scored new career highs in the win, led by senior Yogi Oliff with 23 points to go with eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. First-year Josh Kim scored 21 points, dished out five assists and had three steals off the bench.
Senior Will Grudzinski also hit double-figures with a 13-point, five rebound performance.
The Spartans opened with a slight advantage but the Bears quickly tied things up at 5-5 following a 3-pointer from sophomore Connor May at 17:22.
CWRU hit back-to-back 3-pointers to take an 11-5 lead and continued to hold a several-point lead over WashU as the first half clock ticked down. Midway through the first half, Kim drained a 3-pointer, followed by layups from Oliff and sophomore Anthony Przybilla which made it a one point, 25-24 game.
After the teams exchanged buckets, the Spartans hit three 3-pointers in a row to go up 10 points, 36-26, with 4:22 left in the first half.
Down 11 with 3:38 remaining, the Bears put up five-straight on a 3-pointer from Grudzinski and an offensive putback from junior George Gale, cutting it to a six-point, 39-33 game.
After a CWRU free throw, WashU scored the final five points of the game on a free throw from Kim, a layup from Grudzinski and a layup from first-year Theo Rocca to head into halftime trailing 40-38.
The teams opened the second half exchanging baskets before back-to-back buckets from Kim tied the game at 44-44. An offensive putback from senior Calvin Kapral gave WashU its first lead of the game at 17:52.
CWRU tied it up at 46 but Oliff quickly netted a 3-pointer to take the lead back and Kim stole the ball for a jumper to extend WashU's advantage to 51-46 at 16:26.
An offensive putback from the Spartans' Shyam Patel tipped the scales back in favor of CWRU, 56-55, but Kapral hit a free throw and Grudzinski drained a 3-pointer to make it a 59-56 Bears' game.
Things tied back up again at 59 and 68 with neither team taking more than a three-point lead. The Bears started to create a little bit of distance at 7:16 when they started a 7-0 run on a layup from Kim, a jumper from May and a 3-pointer from junior Ryan Cohen, putting WashU ahead 78-70.
A 3-pointer from Grudzinski at 4:05 extended the Bears' lead to nine-points, 81-72 and a pair of free throws from Cohen with 1:24 left on the clock pushed it into double-digits, 87-77.
In the final minute, Oliff and May hit free throws and Oliff added the final layup of the game with 28 seconds remaining, sealing the Bears' 12-point victory.
WashU shot 34-for-69 (49.3%) with an 11-for-27 (40.7%) clip from 3-point range. The Bears edged CWRU 38-34 on the boards and had 16 second-chance points on the day.