Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team earned an 82-63 victory at UW-Whitewater Saturday night in Kachel Gymnasium. The Eagles improve to 14-5 overall and 7-1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Warhawks fall to 14-5 overall and 3-5 in the WIAC.
Both teams are receiving votes in this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll.
UWL earned its fourth straight regular-season win at UW-Whitewater with Saturday's win. The Eagles also picked up their first regular-season sweep of the Warhawks since 2015-16. UWL earned a 75-60 victory on January 12 in La Crosse.
Ben Meinholz had 14 points and six rebounds.
The Eagles never trailed in Saturday's contest, racing out to an 12-4 lead on
Taulvish McCray's layup with 16:23 remaining in the first half. UW-Whitewater later tied the game, 18-18, on a David Sachs' layup, but UWL scored six straight points to take a 24-18 advantage.
Josh Dahlke had a pair of layups for the Eagles while
Sam Burkart also scored on a layup.
UW-Whitewater cut the margin to 29-28 with 1:46 left in the first half when UWL went on another 6-0 run to lead 35-28. The Eagles led, 35-30, at halftime.
UWL started the second half scoring 10 of the first 14 points to lead 45-34 with 15:33 left on a Brandon Manning layup. The Warhawks cut the lead to 47-39 with 14:29 remaining, but would get no closer the rest of the way. The Eagles led by as many as 25 points in the second half, including 76-51 with 4:23 left on a pair of
Ben Meinholz free throws.
UWL shot 54.3% from the field, including 36.4% (four-of-11) from three-point range. The Eagles shot 65.0% (13-of-20) from the field in the second half. The team shot 82.4% (28-of-34) at the free throw line for the game, setting season-highs in free throws made and attempted. Manning led UWL with 28 points and eight rebounds while Meinholz finished with 14 points and six rebounds. Manning was 10-of-11 from the field and eight-of-nine at the line while finishing with four assists. Eleven different players scored for the Eagles.
UW-Whitewater shot 38.3% from the field, including 26.3% (five-of-19) from three-point range, and 61.1% (22-of-36) at the line. Sachs led the Warhawks with 25 points while Andre Brown finished with 10 points. Mitchell Pfeifer had a team-high five rebounds.
UWL returns to action Wednesday, January 30 hosting UW-Stevens Point at 7 p.m.
