On a Saturday in which a new football champ was crowned, Division III's defending men's basketball champ took its first loss of the season. No. 10 Elmhurst beat top-ranked Washington University, 82-75 in the Elmhurst Bluejay Classic Tournament, snapping the Bears 15-game win streak, which dated to last season's NCAA Tournament.
"This certainly ranks as one of the biggest wins in the 13 years I've been coaching at Elmhurst," said coach Mark Scherer. "We played extremely well against an outstanding opponent."
Ryan Burks scored a team-high 17 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the floor. Tournament MVP Brent Ruch had 16 points and 10 rebounds. Elmhurst shot 52 percent from the field and went 21-for-24 at the free throw line. Aaron Thompson had 18 points for the Bears, whose last loss came in the 2007-08 regular-season finale at Chicago.
&&f-boxl&&No. 3 UW-Platteville, a contender for the No. 1 ranking, topped Dubuque, 71-50. The Pioneers are 10-0 for the first time since 1997-98. No. 4 St Thomas survived a scare from UW-La Crosse, winning, 94-87 in overtime. St. Thomas is 8-0 for the first time since 1994-95. The game featured 17 lead changes and 13 ties. No. 20 Richard Stockton got a quality win, topping No. 11 Carnegie Mellon, 8-2-70. behind 16 points from Isham Poe.
On a light day of action on the women's side, No. 4 Thomas More and No. 5 UW-Whitewater cruised to wins. No. 19 Howard Payne got past Louisiana College to improve to 9-1.
Mount Union's men's and women's basketball teams matched the results of the football champs, with both beating Otterbein. DePauw's men hung in with Division I Indiana State, but lost by six. April Smith had 28 points as William Paterson topped Lehman, 77-68.