Milwaukee, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team fell 83-73 in an exhibition at National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Friday night in Panther Arena. UWM recorded the game as a regular-season contest to improve to 1-0 on the season. 


UWL led five times in the first half, including 14-11 with 14:04 left in the first half after Taulvish McCray's three-pointer. UWM took 19-15 lead on a Brock Stull layup with 11:55 remaining, but five straight points from Ben Meinholz gave UWL a one-point lead. The Eagles led 26-25 with 7:55 remaining on a Brendon Manning three-point field goal, but the Panthers used a 12-2 run to lead 37-28 with 3:36 remaining on Stull's three-point field goal. 

UWM led 51-37 at halftime. "I was proud of the way the guys competed," said UWL head coach Kent Dernbach.  "We showed some resiliency after they made a few runs and we were able to come right back and make a run of our own.  Unfortunately, we did not play well defensively into halftime and it's nearly impossible to win on the road giving up 51 in a half.

The Panthers took their largest lead of the game at 60-41 with 15:53 left. UWM later led 70-52 with 7:51 remaining, but UWL went on a 7-1 run to cut the deficit to 71-59 with 6:34 remaining on Terek Nesheim's three-pointer. The Panthers responded scoring eight of the game's next 11 points to lead 79-62 with 3:20 left. 

Trailing 81-66 with 2:35 remaining, UWL used a 7-0 run to trail 81-73 with :36 left on a Meinholz' three-pointer. A pair of UWM free throws ended the game. 

UWL shot 44.4% from the field Friday, including 36.0 (nine-of-25) from three-point range, and 61.5% (eight-of-13) at the free throw line. Meinholz led UWL with 19 points and eight rebounds while recording five assists. McCray finished with 14 points and team-high seven assists while Manning totaled 12 points. 

UWL outscored UWM, 36-32, in the second half. The Eagles had 12 offensive rebounds to the Panthers' seven. UWL finished with 15 assists, 10 steals and two blocks. 

"We showed great toughness and fight to hold them to 32 in the second half," said Dernbach. "We gave ourselves an opportunity to make it a two possession game down the stretch and it would have been interesting if that scenario played out. 

"We had some really good individual performances- specifically on the defensive end from Taulvish McCray and Brendon Manning."
 
UWM shot 62.5% from the field, including 47.1% (eight-of-17) from three-point range, and 78.9% (15-of-19) at the line. All five starters scored in double figures for the Panthers with Bryce Barnes finishing with 19 points. Stull and Jeremy Johnson each had 13 points while Bryce Nze and Brett Prahl added 10 each. Nze had a game-high nine rebounds. 

UWL opens its 2017-18 regular-season at Luther College (Iowa) Wednesday, November 15 at 8 p.m. 

"We need to come back and have a really good few days of practice as we head into another road game at Luther on Wednesday," said Dernbach.