La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team earned its 20th win of the season with a 64-54 victory over UW-Eau Claire Saturday afternoon in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles, ranked 24th on D3hoops.com, improve to 20-5 overall and 9-5 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Blugolds drop to 17-8 overall and 8-6 in the conference.
UWL records its first 20-win season since finishing 20-8 in 2005-06. It is the sixth season in school history with at least 20 wins. UWL won 20 games in 1963-64 (20-2), 1980-81 (20-5), 1982-83 (20-7) and 2005-06 (20-8) while winning a school record 21 games in 1975-76 (21-6).
Wyatt Cook had 16 points and 11 rebounds Saturday afternoon.
The 20 regular-season wins this year are the most since 1982-83 (20-7).
With Saturday's victory, UWL head coach
Kent Dernbach is now 50-28 (.641) in three years at the helm of the Eagles.
UWL clinches the third-seed for the WIAC Championships (presented by Culver's) and will host sixth-seeded UW-River Falls in the first round of the tournament Tuesday, February 25. UW-Eau Claire is the fourth-seed and will host fifth-seeded UW-Stevens Point in the first round February 25.
UW-Eau Claire raced out to a 7-2 lead Saturday before UWL took a 10-9 lead on a pair of
Ethan Anderson free throws with 13:13 left in the first half. The Eagles led, 24-19, when they went on an 11-0 run to take a 35-19 advantage with 2:42 remaining after
Luke Norcia's three-point field goal. UWL led, 35-21, at halftime.
UWL took a 39-26 lead with 16:05 remaining on another Norcia three-pointer. Trailing 40-30, UW-Eau Claire used a 9-2 run to cut the deficit to 42-39 with 11:21 left on Cole Rabedeaux jumper.
Terek Nesheim's two free throws with 8:03 remaining gave UWL a 51-42 lead, but a Carter Brooks' three-pointer for UW-Eau Claire with 3:26 left cut the lead to 54-52.
Wyatt Cook delivered back-to-back layups and a free throw to give UWL a 59-52 lead with :50 left. The Blugolds could get no closer than seven points the rest of the game as the Eagles went five-of-six at the line in the final :34.
Terek Nesheim finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
UWL shot 39.6% from the field, including 26.1% (six-of-23) from three-point range, and 71.4% (20-of-28) at the line. Cook and Norcia led the Eagles with 16 points each while Nesheim finished with 11. Cook and Nesheim each had a team-high 11 rebounds. Anderson totaled nine points and four rebounds.
UW-Eau Claire shot 38.2% from the field, including 27.3% (six-of-22) from three-point range, and 66.7% (six-of-nine) at the line. Cam Kuepers led the Blugolds with 19 points while Rabedeaux finished with 16. Spencer Page had nine rebounds and team-high 11 rebounds.
