St. Louis, Mo. — A slow start put Wabash College in an early hole Monday night, and a late push in each half was not enough as the Little Giants suffered their first loss of the season, an 82–74 road defeat at fifth-ranked Washington University-St. Louis.
 
Wabash (3–1), which received votes in the latest D3hoops.com Top 25 poll, fell behind 11–0 in the opening four minutes before settling in behind the bench scoring of Nate Matelic and the steady shooting of Luke Ellspermann.
 
After WashU's opening surge, Matelic ignited the Little Giants' best stretch of the first half. He hit a turnaround jumper at 13:47, and after a defensive stop, drilled a 3-pointer off a steal to cut the deficit to 15–8. Moments later, he knocked down another jumper to make it 22–18 with 9:43 remaining. That four-point margin—reached again after a Josh Whack floater—was the closest Wabash came in the first half before WashU answered with another scoring burst.
 
The Bears (4–0) used consecutive 3-pointers from Ryan Cohen to rebuild the lead to 39–27, then closed the half with a Connor May layup to enter the break ahead 44–32.
 
Wabash opened the second half with renewed energy, trimming the deficit to single digits behind a pair of Ellspermann drives and inside scoring from Gavin Schippert, who finished with six points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Ellspermann's deep 3-pointer with 12:14 to play cut the margin to 60–51, the tightest the game had been since the early first-half rally.
 
But each Wabash surge was met with a WashU counterpunch. Layups by Anthony Przybilla and Jake Davis restored a double-digit gap, and a transition bucket moments later kept the Bears comfortably ahead.
 
A Matelic layup with 3:49 remaining made it 76–68, but the Bears answered on the next possession with a second-chance basket from Davis. Przybilla added four free throws in the final minute to secure the win. Ellspermann capped the game with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
 
Ellspermann led all scorers with 22 points, while Matelic added 14. Whack finished with 12 points for Wabash, which shot 41 percent from the field and 5-of-23 from 3-point range. WashU shot 49 percent overall and 41 percent from deep, led by May's 21 points and Cohen's 16.  Wabash converted 12 WashU turnovers into 18 points, while the Little Giants' seven turnovers led to 11 points for the host Bears.
 
Despite the loss, Wabash outscored the Bears 42–38 in the second half and showed resilience against a top-five opponent.
 
Wabash will take the remainder of the Thanksgiving break off before returning to the court to start North Coast Athletic Conference play against arch-rival DePauw University at home on December 3.