River Falls, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team earned a 86-70 win at UW-River Falls Wednesday night in Don Page Arena. The Eagles, ranked 24th on D3hoops.com, improve to 19-5 overall and 8-5 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Falcons drop to 12-12 overall and 5-8 in the conference.
UWL's 19 wins are the most in a regular-season since 2005-06. The Eagles finished 20-8 overall in 2005-06, advancing to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Tournament. The 19 wins this year are the most since finishing 19-8 in 2006-07.
Wyatt Cook had 21 points and six rebounds.
UW-River Falls raced out to a 12-0 lead on Wednesday night, going five-of-six from the field, while UWL missed its first eight shots. The Eagles got on the board on Seth Anderson's jumper with 12:42 remaining in the first half. Trailing 14-2, UWL went on a 8-0 run to cut it to 14-10 on Ethan Anderson's layup. The Eagles later tied the game, 25-25, with 3:58 left on Seth Anderson's jumper.
UWL scored the next seven points to take a 32-25 advantage with 2:22 remaining in the first half on Ethan Anderson's three-pointer. UWL led, 36-33, at halftime after Terek Nesheim's layup with :21 left.
The Eagles never trailed in the second half. UWL led, 38-35, when it went on a 13-2 run to lead 51-37 on a Sam Burkart layup. UW-River Falls cut the deficit to 58-49 with 11:57 left, but the Falcons could get no closer the rest of the game as the Eagles by as many as 20 points in the second half. UWL went 10-of-10 at the free throw line in the final 3:01, including Wyatt Cook hitting six-of-six.
UWL shot 51.7% from the field, including 47.1% (eight-of-17) from three-point range, and 85.7% (18-of-21) at the line. Cook led the Eagles with 21 points and six rebounds. He finished six-of-nine from the field, including one-of-one from three-point range, and eight-of-eight at the free throw line. Seth Anderson scored 19 points of the bench, going seven-of-13 from the field, including one-of-two from three-point range, and four-of-six at the line. Ethan Anderson added 15 points and six rebounds while Nesheim finished with 11 points.
UW-River Falls shot 47.2% from the field, including 26.1% (six-of-23) from three-point range, and 77.8% (14-of-18) at the line. Alex Ohde led the Falcons with 17 points and six rebounds. Noah Hanson finished with 12 points while Austin Werdin had 11 points and tied Ohde for the team lead with six rebounds.
UWL returns to action Saturday, February 22 hosting UW-Eau Claire at 3 p.m. on Senior Day.
