Decorah, Iowa - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team opened its 2017-18 regular-season with a 94-64 victory at Luther College (Iowa) Wednesday night in Regents Center. The Norse were also playing their season-opener. Kent Dernbach earned his first career win as UWL's head coach with Wednesday's victory.

The Eagles never trailed Wednesday, scoring the first four points of the game. UWL led 12-11 with 14:05 remaining in the first half when it used a 8-0 run to lead 20-11. Tanner Bruchs had five of the eight points. Luther (Iowa) later cut the deficit to 29-26 with 4:14 left on a McCoy Matthias jumper, but UWL responded with a 14-2 run to lead 43-28. Bruchs had eight points in the run for the Eagles. UWL led 45-31 at halftime with Bruchs scoring a game-high 16 points in the first half, going six-of-nine from the field, including four-of-five from three-point range. Taulvish McCray had 11 points in the first half.
 

UWL led 50-33 when a 5-0 run for Luther (Iowa) cut the lead to 50-38 with 16:01 left, but the Norse would get no closer the rest of the game. The Eagles led 59-44 with 13:36 remaining when a 12-2 run made it 71-46 with 9:22 left. UWL led by as many as 36 points in the second half.

UWL shot 51.5% from the field, including 44.4% (eight-of-18) from three-point range, and 72.7% (16-of-22) at the free throw line. The Eagles outrebounded the Norse, 47-20, including 21-5 on the offensive end. UWL's 21 offensive rebounds are the most since totaling 22 in a 88-54 victory at Northland College (Wis.) January 3, 2006.

The Eagles outscored the Norse, 40-12, in the paint and 24-2 in second chance points.

Ben Meinholz led UWL with 18 points, including 15 in the second half. He finished seven-of-10 from the field and four-of-five at the line while tying for the team lead with Sam Skoyen with eight rebounds. Meinholz also had a team-high three steals. Bruchs finished with 16 points while McCray had 11.

Seventeen players appeared in the game for UWL with 14 scoring.

Luther (Iowa) shot 39.1% from the field, including 37.5% (six-of-16) from three-point range, and 75.9% (22-of-29) at the line. Rahul Bagga led the Norse with 15 points while Jared Nicolaisen finished with 11.

UWL returns to action Saturday, November 18 hosting Central College (Iowa) at 3 p.m.