Bears win OT thriller over Illinois Wesleyan
Senior Spencer Gay and junior Dylan Richter each scored 21 points as the men’s basketball team posted an 83-75 overtime home victory over No. 12 Illinois Wesleyan Dec. 18.
Gay, who scored nine of his 21 points in overtime after being held scoreless in the first half, was 6-of-9 from the field and 9-of-12 from the foul line. Richter hit 7-of-12 from the field, including 5-of-8 from the three-point line, and added a career-high six assists as he played all 45 minutes in the victory.
The Bears shot a season-high 54.9 percent from the field and hit 19-of-27 from the foul line. The WUSTL bench outscored Illinois Wesleyan, 22-12, led by nine points from freshman Alan Aboona — including a fadeaway jumper at the end of regulation to tie the game and send it to overtime — and a career-high eight points and six rebounds from sophomore Robert Burnett.
The Bears (6-4) get a 16-day break before returning to action at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 4, at home against Benedictine University.
Sayers leads Bears past Webster U.
The No. 5 women’s basketball team held Webster University without a field goal for the final nine minutes of the second half en route to a 55-43 road victory Dec. 18.
Sophomore Annie Sayers scored a career-high 16 points and tied her career-high with eight rebounds to lead WUSTL to the win. Senior Kathryn Berger also scored in double figures, with 11 points and seven rebounds.
WUSTL forced 13 Webster turnovers in the second half and held the Gorloks to just five field goals and one three-pointer during final 20 minutes of play.
The Dec. 18 game was the final contest of the first semester for the Bears (8-1), and served as a final warm-up before a rematch of the 2010 NCAA Division III championship game with second-ranked Hope College Wednesday, Dec. 29, at the Ohio Wesleyan University Bishop Classic in Delaware, Ohio.
Clarke earns coaching honor
Men’s soccer head coach Joe Clarke was named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) 2010 NCAA Division III Central Region Coach of the Year, as announced Dec. 13 by the association.
Clarke earned region coach of the year honors for the first time in his career and is just the third coach in school history to garner the distinction, joining Joe Carenza, Jr. in 1985 and Ty Keough in 1995.
The 2010 season marked one of Clarke’s finest at WUSTL, with the Bears posting a 14-1-5 overall mark and advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Bears opened the season with a 10-0-3 record, their best start to a season in more than 30 years.
In 14 seasons at WUSTL, Clarke has posted an overall record of 162-75-31 for an overall winning percentage of .662. Prior to arriving on the Danforth Campus, Clarke served as the head men’s soccer coach at his alma mater, Saint Louis University, where he posted a mark 205-74-30 (.712). He was inducted into the St. Louis Soccer Hall of Fame Sept. 13, 2007.