Transylvania Men Upend No. 1 Washington University

Release courtesy of Transylvania University

WOOSTER, OH - Senior guard Tim Tierney poured in a game-high 25 points Tuesday, including a pair of clinching free throws with five seconds to play, lifting Transylvania to a 73-69 win over  two-time defending national champion Washington (Mo.) University in the first game of the Wooster Kiwanis Classic.

No. 25 Wooster faced Kalamazoo at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday following the Transy-Wash U. contest. The consolation contest is set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday with the championship game to follow.

The Pioneers are 7-4 while the Bears, who saw a 16-game winning streak halted, are 8-1. Wash U. was ranked No. 1 in the D3hoops.com men's poll. It was the first meeting of the two schools on the basketball court.

Transy led by as many as 17 points in the second half and although Wash U. closed to within two several times in the late going, it never led in the second half. Freshman Barrett Meyer added 14 points and five rebounds for the Pioneers and Chris Owens added nine points.

Spencer Gay added 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Bears. All-America guard Aaron Thompson pitched in 16 points.

Transy led by nine at intermission behind 16 points by Tierney, who also had three assists. He finished the game with five assists. Tierney scored a career-high 28 points in his last outing, a win over Mt. Union.

Transy jumped to a five-point lead midway through the half on back-to-back three-pointers by reserve Matt Wise, making it 18-13 at the 12:46 mark. Two Tierney free throws made it 20-15, matching the Pioneers' biggest lead of the half to that point.

But the Bears battled back to take a 26-25 edge with 7:18 to play and a layup by Wash U.'s Caleb Knepper gave the Bears their biggest lead, 28-25, with 6:04 to play, prompting a Transy time out.

Transy's Meyer canned back-to-back treys for the Pioneers, making it 36-30 and giving Transy its largest advantage of the half with just over a minute left in the period. Owens' three off a Tierney assists with two seconds left made it 39-30 at intermission.

Wash U. outshot Transy 50 percent to 45 percent overall in the half, but the Pioneers converted eight of 13 from behind the arc while the Bears missed all three of their attempts. Gay had 13 first-half points to lead Wash U.

The Bears outshot the Pioneers 49 percent to 42 percent from the field, but Transy had a 33-15 edge in scoring from behind the three-point arc. Transy was 11 of 22 from long range while Wash U. was five of 20.

Both the men and women will return to Heartland Conference play at the Beck Center on Jan. 6 with a doubleheader against Defiance. The women's game will begin at 5 p.m. with the men to follow at 7 p.m.