COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College men's basketball team saw a seven-game winning streak end at the hands of Washington College as the Bears were plagued by 21 turnovers and couldn't get things going in an 83-67 Centennial Conference loss at Helfferich Hall.
Ursinus (14-8, 11-4) came into the game in a three-way tie for first place in the Centennial but was halted by a playoff-hungry Shoremen squad. The Bears grabbed an early 6-0 lead but were bogged down the rest of the way, struggling on both ends of the floor after a six-game stretch averaging nearly 91 points per game.
Senior Zack Muredda led the Bears as the only player in double figures with a career-high 20 points on 7-of-12 shooting. He made 4-of-7 from beyond the arc.
A couple first-half scoreless stretches that combined for over 10 minutes hampered the Bears. The Shoremen (11-11, 7-8) grabbed a 12-11 lead at the 12:34 mark after a scoring drought from the 14:05 to 9:33 marks. Ursinus' last points of the first half came with 5:26 left when sophomore Bruce Edwards was fouled while hitting a long jumper from the key and made the freebie to cut the Washington College lead to 28-20.
The Shoreman started 1-of-9 from the field but jumped on the Bears for the rest of the first half. Washington College held Ursinus to just 14 points while scoring 38 points of their own for the remaining 18 minutes as they took advantage of 16 turnovers and only 31.8-percent shooting from the home team.
Alec Lewis' seal-off layup and an ensuing trey put the visitors up 28-17 with about six minutes to play in the half. Lewis scored a game-high 21 points on 8-of-15 from the field.
A steal by point guard Tray Wright and his long outlet pass to Dallas Marshall gave the Shoremen a 19-point lead at 42-23 early in the second half. Wright collected a double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
The Bears cut the lead to 12 (44-32) courtesy of a transition triple by senior Eric Williams Jr. off his own steal, but Washington College never wavered. Josh Porteous nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to keep the Shoremen up 16, half of his four triples in a 14-point night.
Muredda drilled a 3-pointer to get the Bears within 66-57 with 4:29 to go, but the Bears got no closer the rest of the way. Peyton Vostenak provided a late spark with a pair of deep 3-pointers.
Ursinus shot 24-of-58 (41.4%) overall, 10-of-30 (33.3%) from 3-point territory, and 9-of-13 (69.2%) from the line.
Washington College went 27-of-62 (43.5%) on field goals, 8-of-23 from beyond the arc, and 21-of-26 (80.8%) from the charity stripe. The Shoremen committed 12 turnovers and outgained the Bears on the glass (37-34).
The Bears travel to Johns Hopkins on Saturday for a heavyweight tilt with the Blue Jays at 4 p.m. The teams are tied for second place in the league standings, one game behind Swarthmore, with three games remaining.