Waverly, Iowa - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team fell 72-69 att Wartburg College (Iowa) Sunday night at Levick Arena.  The Eagles drop to 6-2 on the season, while the Knights, ranked 15th on this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 poll, improve to 8-1. 
 
The meeting of teams was the first since a 60-53 Wartburg (Iowa) victory in Waverly during the 2003-04 season.  UWL and Wartburg (Iowa) first met during the 1937-38 campaign, with UWL winning 36-21 at home.  Wartburg (Iowa) now leads the all-time series, 4-2.  
 
UWL's Ben Meinholz hit the opening shot of the game, and Brendon Manning added a layup a minute later to give the Eagles a 4-1 lead.  Wartburg (Iowa) outscored UWL 38-13 the remainder of the period, leading 39-17 at the half, matching its biggest lead of the game at 22 points. 
 
The Eagles opened the second half on a 15-2 run capped by a Manning layup to cut the lead to 41-32 with 14:14 left.  Later, UWL used a 10-0 run to get within two points at 48-46 on a Tanner Bruchs layup with 8:48 remaining. 
 
Wartburg (Iowa) led 61-50 at the 5:21 mark as the Eagles chipped away at the lead, but still trailed 72-65 with 1:27 to play. 

A Manning layup cut it to five points, and after a Jack Kortes steal and layup, the lead was 72-69 with :27 left.  Manning stole the ball with :19 to go, and after a timeout, Milton Cummings missed a three-pointer, followed by an offensive rebound, and another missed three-point field goal attempt from Sam Skoyen with :05 remain as Wartburg (Iowa) held on for the win. 
 
UWL shot 42.0% from the field, including 25.9% (seven-of-27) from three-point range, and 80.0% (four-of-five) at the free throw line.  Meinholz led the Eagles with 17 points and eight rebounds, also adding three steals and two assists.  Bruchs added 13 points and Manning 10.  Taulvish McCray led UWL with four assists and four steals.  
 
Wartburg (Iowa) shot 48.9% from the field, including 23.1% (three-of-13) from three-point range, and 74.2% (23-of-31) at the line.  Jaran Sabus led all scorers with 22 points, while Cam Kickbush added 10 for the Knights.  Clifton Brown had seven rebounds.   
 
UWL returns to action Wednesday, December 13, hosting Carroll University (Wis.) at 7:30 p.m.