Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team used a strong second half start in earning a 60-55 victory at UW-Whitewater Saturday night in Kachel Gymnasium in the regular-season finale for both teams. The Eagles improve to 13-12 overall and 5-9 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Warhawks drop to 16-9 overall and 6-8 in the conference.

With the win, UWL clinched the sixth-seed for the WIAC Championship (Presented by Culver's) and will play at third-seeded UW-Oshkosh in the first round Wednesday, February 21 at 7 p.m. UW-Whitewater, the tournament's fifth-seed, plays at fourth-seeded UW-River Falls in the first round.

The first round winners will advance to the semifinals Friday, February 23. UW-Platteville is the top-seed and will host the lowest remaining seed in a semifinal while UW-Stevens Point is the second seed and hosts the highest remaining seed February 23. The WIAC Championship game is scheduled for Sunday, February 25 with the winner earning the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships.

UWL needed to win Saturday after UW-Eau Claire earned a 55-54 home victory over UW-Stevens Point earlier in the night.

UWL took a 12-11 lead with 7:34 left in the first half Saturday on a Ben Meinholz jumper, but UW-Whitewater used a 10-2 run to lead 21-14 with 4:37 remaining after a pair of free throws from Andre Brown. The Eagles cut the deficit to 21-16 with Brendon Manning making two free throws before the Warhawks scored the next six points to lead 27-16. UWL finished the half on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 27-23.

UWL used an 18-1 run to start the second half in taking a 41-28 advantage. The Eagles made their first four shots from the field in the second half, including three jumpers by Nolan Wright.  UWL took the lead at 29-27 on a Meinholz jumper and never trailed the rest of the game. UW-Whitewater turned the ball over on four of its first five possessions of the second half and were held scoreless until Maurquis Turner's jumper with 14:07 remaining.

The Warhawks, receiving votes on this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, cut the lead to 47-42 with 8:06 left, but the Eagles scored five straight points to lead 52-42. UW-Whitewater's Mitchel Pfeifer's tip-in later cut it to 52-47 with 4:00 remaining, but the Warhawks could get no closer the rest of the way.

UWL shot 31.0% from the field, including 10.% (two-of-19) from three-point range, and 91.7% (22-of-24) at the line. The 22 free throws made and 24 attempted were both season-highs. Meinholz led the Eagles with 17 points and eight steals Saturday night. The eight steals ties the single-game school record set by Bob Zenz (vs. Winona State, Minn., December 13, 1986), Willie Arnold (vs. St. Mary's, Minn., November 20, 1987) and Al Cherry (vs. UW-Eau Claire, January 22, 2011).

Wright finished with 13 points Saturday night for UWL while Sam Skoyen totaled six. Manning had a team-high nine rebounds.

UW-Whitewater shot 46.3% from the field, including 25.0% (five-of-20) from three-point range, and 60.0% (12-of-20) at the line. Brown led the Warhawks with 14 points while Pfeifer finished with 11. Derek Rongstad had a team-high nine rebounds.