It was a night of firsts for Tony Wingen and his Carnegie Mellon Tartans, who defeated Washington, Mo., 79-72, much to the delight of the fans who packed Skibo Gymnasium and spent much of the time chanting, "Deee-fense."

The hard-earned victory made Wingen the all-time winningest men's basketball coach in school history with a 174-215 record in his 16th season. He surpassed Mel Cratsley, who coached from 1949-66.

"It means I've been here a while," Wingen said with a smile. "I've been fortunate to have bosses who were patient with the ups and downs over the years. This is far and away the best team I've coached."

CMU, 16-3 and ranked 18th in NCAA Division III, are 6-2 and in first place in the University Athletic Association.

The Tartans, who trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half, overtook Washington (13-6, 5-3) midway through the second half and weathered the final seconds to secure their second victory in a week against the Bears. CMU was led by Clayton Barlow-Wilcox (21 points, 11 rebounds), Nate Maurer (17 points, 8 rebounds), A.J. Straub (11 points) and Geoff Kozak (10 points, 6 assists).

"We got good minutes out of our bench," Wingen said of reserves Brad Matta (9 points, 4 rebounds), Greg Gonzalez (7 rebounds) and Bary Dunn (3 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals). "We've been able to go deep into our bench and get production."

Washington, which is headed to its 22nd consecutive winning season under Mark Edwards, was led by Troy Ruths' 22 points and six rebounds. He had 18 of his points in the first half as the Bears led at the break, 36-30.

The Tartans took the lead for good at 62-60 on Straub's 3-pointer with 6:29 remaining. Straub, the school's second all-time leader in 3-pointers, has made a 3-pointer in 22 consecutive games.

The Bears threw a scare into the Tartans when Neal Griffin's 3-pointer pulled them within 75-72 with 22 seconds left. After a steal, Danny O'Boyle's wide-open 3-pointer from the wing rimmed out with 18 seconds left; that would have pulled the Bears into a tie. Straub then made two free throws and Maurer put an exclamation on the win with a breakaway dunk at the buzzer.

CMU, which lost to the University of Chicago in overtime last week, plays host to Chicago at 1 p.m. tomorrow.

"It doesn't get any easier," Wingen said. "We never make things easy for ourselves."