The men’s basketball team won one out of two home games in University Athletic Association conference play this weekend, losing to No. 4 Washington University in St. Louis 79-68 on Sunday and beating No. 21 University of Chicago 59-58 on Friday night.

 The Judges were able to keep pace with the visitors in the first half against WashU, going into halftime down by only one point, at 38-37. During the second half, however, WashU showed why it has been ranked a top-four team in the country. The Bears used dominance in size to outscore the Judges 32-18 in points in the paint and cruise to an 11-point victory.

 WashU outrebounded the Judges 32-23 and out assisted them 23-12. It was also able to capitalize on the Judges’ 18 turnovers, scoring 25 points off of turnovers.

 Guard Colby Smith ’16 and the entire squad knew that they were facing a tough opponent. He said that the team really needed “to pay attention to the details of how we are defending. WashU executed their offense as well as anyone in the country.”

 The squad lost even though it shot the ball well from deep, shooting 52.4 percent from behind the three-point line. It also shot a near-perfect 11-12 from the free- throw stripe.

 Forward Jordan Cooper ’18 led the team with 11 points on offense, while also adding four rebounds and three assists. Forward Samuel Dowden ’17 chipped in 10 points.

 The bench kept the Judges in the game, outscoring WashU’s bench 28-19. Guard Jack Fay ’17 scored 14 off the bench while fellow reserve, guard Carlin Haymon ’18, contributed 12 points.

 The game against Chicago went more favorably for the Judges. The visitors controlled the first half as they went into the intermission up 30-23. With seven minutes to go in the contest, Chicago was still up by 10 points. During the next four-and-a-half minutes the Judges cut the lead to five, setting up a 58-53 advantage for Chicago with 2:30 left to go in the game.

 The team was prepared for a tough game, Smith said. “The plan was to execute our plays when we got the ball in the half court,” he said. “Then on the defensive end provide good ball pressure to get UChicago out of sync… To box out hard on every possession because Chicago had a very athletic team and we really wanted to limit their second chance points.”

 Smith led the Judges’ excellent play in the final minutes of the game. First Smith had a tip in off of a miss from Cooper. Then, with 17.5 seconds remaining in the game and down by three, Smith’s assist on a Cooper basket brought the Judges within one point.

 After a missed Chicago foul shot, Smith grabbed the rebound and dribbled into the middle of the court, where he was fouled with just over six seconds left.

 Smith then hit on both free-throw opportunities to put the home team up 59-58. Smith was not done there as he had one last big play to make for the Judges.

 With the ball in its leading scorer’s hands-Chicago’s junior guard Jordan Smith- the Bears drove the length court and Chicago’s Smith blew past his man on his way to the basket. With about one second remaining on the clock, Jordan Smith laid the ball up but was blocked out of nowhere from the Judges’ Colby Smith and the home team ended up with the ball as the buzzer sounded to declare the upset. 

 Smith was ready for his moment when it came. “I was thinking coming down the stretch is that I wanted to be aggressive in the last minute trying to make plays,” he said.  

“I had felt I had not done enough in the last few minutes in the games at the beginning of the year and I knew as one of the older guys that I needed to start doing more.”

 Smith led the Judges with his late game heroics and his 15 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks-all team highs for the game.  

 Guard Robinson Vilmont ’17 and center John Powell ’17 also put in productive offensive performances with 10 points each. The team plays again at home next Friday against Emory University at 8 p.m.