Wash. U.’s Drake Kindsvater goes up for a basket during the Bears’ blowout win over Blackburn on Tuesday. (Photo: Thomas Grove)

Team	1	2	Total
Blackburn	31	36	67
Wash. U.	53	43	96

Steven Millbrook
Staff Writer

ST. LOUIS, MO — The No. 16-ranked Washington University men’s basketball team enjoyed a fun season-opening win on Tuesday, when it defeated Blackburn College, 96-67, at the Wash. U. Field House.

Sophomore forward Drake Kindsvater had a career day with 25 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Bears.

Four other Wash. U. players reached double-figures in the win, including junior Jake Wolf scored 13 points and grabbed five rebounds, freshman Will Grudzinski netted 12 points, freshman Yogi Oliff scored 11 points, and senior grad student Charlie Jacob finished with 10 points.

Despite the lead the Bears eventually built, the game started out even, with Blackburn leading at times. The Beavers led by three points four different times, including an 18-15 lead with 14:32 remaining, before Wash. U. built up a lead.

A jumper from Oliff at the 14 minute mark evened things up at 18 apiece. Back-to-back layups from Nate Bloedorn and Kindvater put the Bears up 22-18 with 12:15 on the clock, but it wasn’t until a few minutes later Wash. U. started to create some distance.

A jumper from Wolf at 8:08 extended Wash. U.’s lead to 31-24 and a layup from Kindsvater added two more. The Bears took a double-digit, 36-26 lead with 5:24 remaining the first half on a 3-pointer from sophomore Hayden Doyle, followed by a pair of free throws from Bloedorn.

Grudzinski netted a 3-pointer at the 3:53 mark and Jacob netted two free throws to give the Bears a 42-28 edge. Kindsvater and Oliff put in layups before Oliff drained a shot from behind the arc. A 3-pointer from Kindsvater with seven seconds remaining sent the Bears into halftime with a 53-31 lead over the Beavers.

Blackburn came out to score the first five points of the second half, cutting Wash. U.’s lead to 53-36 and prompting a Bears’ timeout.

Wash. U. went up 62-38 less than three minutes into the second half following back-to-back 3-pointers from Grudzinski and Kindsvater. The Beavers’ Troy Cole, Jr. cut the deficit to under 20 with a 3-pointer at 15:56 but Kindsvater put in a jumper and then stole the ball and laid it in to put the Bears back up by 23 points.

The Bears maintained a 15+ point lead for the majority of the game, however the Beavers did close the gap to 14 points with 7:54 left following a 7-0 run. Wash. U. answered with its own 8-0 run behind two 3-pointers in a row from Jacob and a layup from Kindsvater.

A layup from Wolf and a jumper from Oliff put Wash. U. up 86-60 with 2:33 left on the clock. The Beavers hit a 3-pointer but Tyler Carlson answered right back with a shot from distance. A layup from Tyler Van Eekeren extended the lead to 91-63 and a pair of free throws from Oliff made it a 30-point game.

Senior Liam Dillon closed out Wash. U.’s scoring efforts with a 3-pointer with just 12 seconds remaining on the clock.

The Bears shot 35-for-71 (49.3%) overall and 12-for-24 (50%) from 3-point range. Wash. U. scored 14 second-chance points, had 16 fast-break points and scored 46 points in the paint. The Bears out rebounded Blackburn 42-31.

Wash. U. is back in action on Friday evening, when it goes on the road for a matchup against Wabash.

Blackburn 67

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
04	Cole Jr.,Troy	*	30	9-17	3-7	2-2	0-7	7	0	1	2	0	1	23
05	Aldridge,Chanz	*	33	4-11	1-6	3-3	0-3	3	3	3	6	0	1	12
13	Harrison II,Eliot	*	20	3-3	0-0	0-0	1-4	5	4	0	0	1	0	6
22	Johnson,Tyson	*	31	2-5	0-0	1-2	2-4	6	1	4	3	1	0	5
02	Talmadge,Izayah	*	19	0-2	0-0	0-2	0-1	1	5	1	3	0	0	0
00	Johnson,Cameron		18	4-8	0-2	1-1	0-4	4	0	0	1	0	0	9
25	Kelsey,Zach		20	3-4	0-1	0-0	1-2	3	3	0	0	1	0	6
01	Jelks,Tyler		19	2-8	2-5	0-0	1-0	1	1	2	0	0	1	6
11	Hord,Locke		8	0-4	0-4	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
23	Teig,Will		2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	1-0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Totals	–	200	27-62	6-25	7-10	6-25	31	17	11	16	3	3	67

Wash. U. 96

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
20	Kindsvater,Drake	*	30	11-14	2-2	1-2	3-7	10	3	1	1	1	2	25
23	Wolf,Jake	*	21	5-9	0-0	3-3	3-2	5	1	1	1	1	1	13
32	Grudzinski,Will	*	25	4-11	4-9	0-0	1-3	4	1	1	0	0	0	12
42	Jacob,Charlie	*	27	3-8	2-6	2-2	0-2	2	2	3	0	0	0	10
04	Doyle,Hayden	*	32	2-8	1-2	1-2	0-6	6	2	6	2	1	1	6
10	Oliff,Yogi		24	4-6	1-2	2-2	0-3	3	0	3	1	0	4	11
15	Bloedorn,Nate		10	2-5	0-0	3-8	3-2	5	1	0	1	1	0	7
34	Capral,Calvin		8	1-4	0-0	1-2	1-2	3	2	1	0	0	0	3
14	Carlson,Tyler		2	1-2	1-2	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
30	Dillon,Liam		1	1-1	1-1	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
03	Van Eekeren,Tyler		1	1-2	0-0	0-0	2-0	2	0	0	0	0	0	2
25	Chiphe,Jabari		11	0-1	0-0	1-2	0-2	2	2	3	1	0	0	1
02	Gonzalo,Matt		6	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0
01	Coffy,Jonathan		1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
21	Nwokolo,Chidera		1	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Totals	–	200	35-71	12-24	14-23	13-29	42	15	21	8	4	9	96