UW-Eau Claire 61, UW-La Crosse 57

La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women's basketball team fell 61-57 to UW-Eau Claire Tuesday night in the first round of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament. The Eagles finish 18-8 on the season while the Blugolds improve to 10-16. UW-Eau Claire advances to play at top-seeded UW-Whitewater Feb. 25 in the semifinals.

UW-L, a school-best third seed in this year's league tournament, trailed 5-0 to start Tuesday's contest. The Eagles came back to take a 13-9 lead with 10:20 left after a Stacie Van Handel jumper. The game was tied four times in the first half before UW-L led 30-28 at halftime.

UW-Eau Claire, the tournament's sixth seed, used a 10-0 run to start the second half to take a 38-30 lead with 15:57 remaining. The Blugolds later led 47-35 with 12:15 left and 56-45 with 5:36 remaining. UW-L scored the game's next nine points to cut the lead to 56-54 with 2:53 remaining on Dana Churchill's layup. Sarah Bingea hit a jumper for UW-Eau Claire to give the Blugolds a four-point lead and Churchill hit one-of-two at the line with 2:21 remaining to make it 58-55.

Each team missed jumpers before Bingea made one-of-two at the free throw line with 1:06 left. Churchill cut the lead back to 59-57 with a steal and layup with :53 remaining. After Hannah Mesick missed a jumper for UW-Eau Claire with :25 left, UW-L called a timeout. Mesick then blocked Melissa Lang's potential game-tying jumper with :02 left and grabbed the rebound. She was fouled and hit both free throws with :01 remaining to secure the victory.

Danielle Frank and Taylor Larson led UW-L with 12 points each while Frank had a team-high 10 rebounds and four blocks. Larson hit four-of-seven three-point attempts. Churchill finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Lindsey Litrenta finished with nine points and three assists.

UW-L shot 32.2% from the field, including 39.1% (nine-of-23) from three-point range, and 83.3% (10-of-12) at the line.

Mesick and Laura Olson led UW-Eau Claire with 17 points. Mesick also had 12 rebounds, four assists and four blocks. Olson finished five-of-six from three-point range. The Blugolds shot 45.1% from the field, including 83.3% (five-of-six) from three-point range, and 71.4% (10-of-14) at the free throw line.