Box Score Waverly, Iowa - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team defeated Cornell College (Iowa) 66-48 in the opening game of the Buzz Levick Tournament hosted by Wartburg College (Iowa) Friday night. With the win, the Eagles improve to 4-0 on the season while the Rams fall to 1-3.
A Jayden Meeker field goal got the scoring started for the Rams as they built an early 10-6 lead with 12:17 left in the first half. The Eagles would get their offense going as they went on a 17-0 run to take its largest lead (23-10) of the first half with 5:21 left.
Austin Westra sparked the run with seven points for the Eagles. The Rams scored the next four points to cut their deficit to 23-17 but that would be as close as they would get the rest of the half as the Eagles led 29-21 at intermission.
Ethan Anderson had eight points and eight rebounds in win.
Early in the second half, the Rams' Zach Ingle hit a three-pointer to cut their deficit to 35-31 with 16:39 left in the game. Westra hit a jumper for the Eagles but Jordan Magnani hit a three-pointer for the Rams to make it 37-34. The Eagles scored 17 of the next 22 points to take a 54-39 lead with 6:19 remaining. The Eagles got seven points from
Torin Hannah and six points from
Henry Noone to spark the scoring. UWL took its largest lead of the game, 64-44, on a
JJ Paider layup and the Rams would not get closer than 16 the rest of the way.
UWL finished the contest shooting 29-for-66 (43.9%) from the floor, including seven-of-23 (30.4%) from behind the three-point line. The Eagles were one-of-two (50.0%) at the free throw line. Westra led the Eagles with a game-high 16 points while Hannah and Noone each added nine points. Westra also finished with five assists and five rebounds while
Ethan Anderson had eight points and game-high eight rebounds. UWL finished with a 45-31 advantage in rebounding.
The Rams shot 15-for-49 (30.6%) from the floor and sevn-for-30 (23.3%) from the three-point line. Cornell was also 11-of-19 (57.9%) from the free throw line. Meeker led the Rams with 16 points, five rebounds while Ingle finished with 10 points.
The Eagles will now play Wartburg (Iowa) in the championship of the Buzz Levick Tournament at 4 p.m. Saturday.
