Box Score Menomonie, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team earned a 63-57 overtime win at UW-Stout Wednesday night in Johnson Fieldhouse.  The Eagles, winners of seven of their last eight games, improve to 10-6 overall and 4-1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC).  It is UWL's second straight overtime victory after a 72-70 win over then 14th-ranked UW-Whitewater January 16 in La Crosse.  The Blue Devils drop to 4-11 overall and 0-5 in the WIAC with Wednesday's loss. 

UWL scored the first seven points of the game Wednesday, including six by Austin Fritz.  The Eagles led 13-6 with 11:10 left in the first half after a Lucas Collom layup, but the Blue Devils used a 9-1 run to take their first lead of the game at 15-14 with 6:37 remaining on a Hank Kujak layup.  UW-Stout led 19-16 before UWL went on a 9-2 run to lead 25-21 with 1:54 left on a pair of Fritz free throws.  UW-Stout took a 26-25 halftime lead on Sam Ortmann's three-pointer with :04 remaining.

The Blue Devils opened the second half on a 7-0 run to lead 33-25.  The Eagles trailed 35-29 when they went on a 9-1 run to lead 38-36 on a Devin Yurk three-point field goal with 8:48 remaining.  UW-Stout took a 50-45 advantage with 1:21 left before UWL's Jared Staege hit one-of-two free throws to make it 52-48 with 1:01 remaining.  After a missed Blue Devils' free throw, Fritz' layup cut the Eagles' deficit to 52-50 with :39 left.  UW-Stout missed another free throw with :27 remaining and Staege's layup with :15 tied the game at 52-52.  John Keefe missed a potential game-winning jumper with :02 left for UW-Stout. 

UWL never trailed in overtime.  The game was tied 54-54 when the Eagles went on a 6-0 run with three points from Staege and three from Ryan Kruser.  Brett Ahsenmacher's layup with :53 left cut the margin to 60-56 and John Lahti hit one-of-two free throws with :23 remaining to make it 60-57.  Clint Rihn made one-of-two at the line for UWL with :16 remaining for a 61-57 advantage and after a UW-Stout missed layup, Fritz finished the scoring with a pair of free throws with :02 left.

UWL shot 42.0% from the field, including 33.3% (seven-of-21) from three-point range, and 70.0% (14-of-20) at the free throw line.  Fritz led all scorers with 20 points, finishing six-of-eight from the field and eight-of-10 at the line.  Staege scored 17 points while tying for the team lead with eight rebounds with Ben Meinholz.  Yurk finished with 13 points.

UW-Stout shot 36.1% from the field, including 15.4% (four-of-26) from three-point range, and 60.0% (nine-of-15) at the line.  Cory Speer led the Blue Devils with nine points while Kujak and Ahsenmacher each finished with eight.

UWL returns to action Saturday, January 23 at UW-Stevens Point at 7 p.m.