La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women's basketball team earned its first Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) win of the season with a 57-52 victory over UW-Platteville Saturday afternoon in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles improve to 12-1 overall and 1-1 in the WIAC while the Pioneers drop to 6-7 overall and 0-2 in the conference.

It is UWL's fifth straight win over UW-Platteville as Saturday's game featured six ties and 14 lead changes.  

UW-Platteville took its largest lead of the game at 9-5 with 6:02 left in the first quarter on a Morgan Horstman layup. UWL responded with a 13-4 run to lead, 18-13 with 1:09 remaining after Whittni Rezin's three-pointer. The Eagles took a 21-15 lead at the end of the opening quarter on Delaney Schoenenberger's three-point field goal with :02 left.   

UWL took a 23-15 lead with 9:45 left in the second quarter on a Rezin field goal. UW-Platteville used a 14-3 run to take a 29-26 advantage on a Caitlyn Tipton three-pointer with 1:11 left in the first half. UWL tied the game at halftime, 29-29, on Dani Craig's three-point field goal with :04 left. 

The teams combined to shoot 17.2% (five-of-29) from the field in the third quarter with UWL going one-of-13 (7.7%) and UW-Platteville finishing four-of-16 (25.0%). The Eagles took a 39-35 lead with 1:03 left in the third quarter on a pair of Ava Kramer free throws, but Jai Clemons' three-pointer with :40 remaining and Horstman's layup with :01 left gave the Pioneers a 40-39 lead after the quarter. 

UWL started the fourth quarter on a 7-0 run, including five points from Schoenenberger. The Eagles led, 51-46 with 6:09 left, when the Pioneers scored six consecutive points to take a 52-51 lead with 2:31 remaining on Lexis Macomber's two free throws. Craig hit a three-pointer at the end of the shot clock with :49 left to give UWL a 54-52 advantage. After a Pioneers' turnover, Kramer made two free throws with :20 left for a four-point lead. UW-Platteville missed a pair of shots in the final :09 and Schoenenberger finished the scoring hitting one-of-two at the line with :04 remaining.
 

UWL shot 30.4% from the field, including 30.3% (10-of-33) from three-point range, and 86.7% (13-of-15) at the free throw line. Schoenenberger and Emma Gamoke led the Eagles with nine points each while Craig finished with eight and Lexie Higgins seven. Higgins had a team-high nine rebounds while Schoenenberger added six. 

UW-Platteville shot 32.8% from the field, including 25.0% (four-of-16) from three-point range, and 57.1% (eight-of-14) at the line. Horstman led the Pioneers with 13 points while Maiah Domask finished with 12 points and game-high 13 rebounds. 

UWL returns to action Wednesday, January 9 hosting UW-Eau Claire at 7 p.m.