The 11th-ranked Case Western Reserve University men's basketball team defeated the University of Chicago 81-70 on Friday night at Horsburgh Gymnasium in Cleveland to give Head Coach Todd McGuinness the 100th win of his CWRU career.

The win put an end to a brief two-game losing streak for the Spartans, who improved to 16-3 overall on the season and remained a game back of NYU in the University Athletic Association standings with a 5-3 conference record. Chicago fell to 12-7 overall and to 4-4 in the UAA with the loss.

McGuinness, who is now 100-72 in his seven years at the helm of the program, became just the third coach in program history to amass 100 wins with the team, joining Bill Sudeck (329 wins in 37 seasons) and Sean McDonnell (128 wins in 13 seasons).

Graduate student guard Anthony Mazzeo fueled the victory, matching his season high with 30 points on 10-of-23 shooting overall, including two-of-five from long range, and added four assists and three rebounds. Graduate student forward Colin Kahl finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, and graduate student guard Richie Manigault scored 10 points on Friday.

The Spartans went on a 13-0 run midway through the first half, keyed by eight-straight points from graduate student guard Preston Maccoux, that saw the team turn a 15-14 deficit with 13:32 to go in the period into a 27-15 lead with 10:54 left. CWRU led by as many as 15 points in the opening half, taking a 34-19 lead on a three-pointer by Mazzeo with 6:56 to play and a 36-21 advantage on a layup by Manigault with 6:07 left in the half. Chicago narrowed the CWRU lead before the end of the frame, but Mazzeo knocked down three free throws after being fouled in the final second of the period to build the team's lead back to 15 and take a 47-32 edge into halftime.

The Spartans' lead never dropped below nine points in the second half of the game and the team maintained a double-digit lead for all but 31 seconds of the final 20 minutes. Threes on back-to-back possessions from Manigault boosted the CWRU advantage to 67-48 with 10:51 to play in the game, and a layup by junior guard Sam Trunley with 9:36 left gave the Spartans a game-high 21-point lead, 71-50. Chicago would not get any closer than 11 points for the remainder of the game.

CWRU finished the game shooting 51.9% (28-54) overall and 44.4% (8-18) from three-point range. The Spartans also converted 89.5% (17-19) of their free throws during the game.

The Spartans will now turn their attention toward another big home UAA matchup on Sunday when CWRU will host 17th-ranked WashU at noon inside Horsburgh Gymnasium.