UW-La Crosse 73, UW-River Falls 71

River Falls, Wis. - Tony Mane hit the game-winning jumper with :00.5 left as the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team earned a 73-71 victory at UW-River Falls Wednesday night in the Karges Center. With the win, the Eagles clinch a berth in the WIAC Tournament scheduled to begin Tuesday, Feb. 23. UW-L improves to 16-8 overall and 8-7 in the WIAC while the Falcons fall to 9-15 overall and 3-12 in the conference.

UW-River Falls led 13-12 with 13:36 remaining in the first half when it went on a 10-2 run to lead 23-14 with 10:20 left. UW-L came back to go on a 12-2 run itself to lead 26-25 after an Austin Scott three-pointer. The Falcons came right back and scored the game's next nine points to take a 34-26 lead with 4:13 remaining. UW-River Falls led 40-35 at halftime.

The Eagles took a 50-49 lead with 14:09 remaining on Derek Wilcox's layup, but the Falcons used a 7-0 run to lead 56-50.UW-River Falls later led 60-52 with 9:06 left and 64-56 with 6:53 remaining after a Jontae Koonkaew jumper.

UW-L regained the lead on a 9-0 scoring run to lead 65-64 with 2:42 remaining after an Andrew Haass layup. Ollie White hit two free throws for the Falcons to make it 66-65 with 1:54 left, but the Eagles' Trevor Stratton hit a jumper with 1:46 remaining to give UW-L a one-point lead. Stratton hit a three-point field goal with :37 left to make it 70-66, but the Falcons' Danny Johnson cut the lead back to one at 70-69 with a three-pointer with :30 left.

Cory Degner converted one-of-two at the line for UW-L with :26 left for a 71-69 lead. Koonkaew then tied the contest at 71-71 on a jumper with :16 remaining, but after an Eagles' timeout, Mane hit his second game-winning shot of the season. He made a three-point field goal at the buzzer in UW-L's 62-59 win at city-rival Viterbo University Nov. 24.

Stratton led UW-L with 17 points while Mane finished with 13 and Scott 10. Haass had a team-high six rebounds.

The Eagles shot 45.9% from the field, including 36.8% (seven-of-19) from three-point range, and 66.7% (10-of-15) at the line.

Jake Voeltz led UW-River Falls with 14 points while Koonkaew and Johnson each finished with 12. Voeltz also had seven rebounds while Wade Guerin had nine points and game-high 10 rebounds.

The Falcons shot 47.4% from the field, including 41.2% (seven-of-17) from the field, and 76.9% (10-of-13) at the free throw line.

UW-L returns to action Saturday, Feb. 20 hosting fifth-ranked UW-Stevens Point at 5:05 p.m. in the regular season finale. It will also be Senior Day at UW-L.