Platteville, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women's basketball team earned a 53-48 victory at UW-Platteville Saturday afternoon on Bo Ryan Court. The Eagles, ranked 18th on D3hoops.com, improve 12-4 overall and 3-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Pioneers drop to 9-7 overall and 1-4 in the conference.
UW-Platteville scored the first four points of the game before UWL came back to force a 8-8 tie on
Carly Coulthart's three-pointer with 3:19 remaining in the first quarter. The Pioneers tied the game, 11-11 after the first quarter on Maiah Domask's layup. UWL led by as many as four points in the second quarter before taking a 22-19 halftime advantage on a
Lexie Higgins jumper with 1:37 left.
The Eagles led 27-25 with 6:24 remaining in the third quarter when they used a 9-0 run to lead 36-25 with 3:58 left after another Coulthart three-point field goal. The Pioneers cut the deficit to 38-34 with :09 remaining before
Ava Kramer's free throw with :01 left gave the Eagles a 39-34 lead after the third quarter.
Ava Kramer, making her first start of the season, had a team-high 13 points.
Allison Heckert made one-of-two at the line for UW-Platteville with 7:02 left in the game to cut UWL's lead to 43-42. Higgins converted a layup (6:40 left) and
Emma Gamoke (6:02) hit a three-pointer to give the Eagles a 48-42 lead. It would be UWL's final field goal of the game.
The Pioneers cut it to 49-48 with :10 left on Domask's layup, but Higgins made a pair of free throws with :09 remaining to make it 51-48. After a missed three-pointer from UW-Platteville with :06 remaining, Kramer hit a pair of free throws with :05 left to give UWL a 53-48 lead.
UWL shot 33.3% from the field, including 42.1% (eight-of-19) from three-point range, and 75.0% (nine-of-12) at the line. Kramer led the Eagles with 13 points and six rebounds while Coulthart scored 12 points off the bench with four rebounds. Higgins and Gamoke each scored eight points.
UW-Platteville shot 29.5% from the field, including 8.7% (two-of-23) from three-point range, and 71.4% (10-of-14) at the line. Domask led the Pioneers with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Morgan Horstman finished with 13 points.
UWL returns to action Wednesday, January 22 hosting UW-Stout at 7 p.m.
