La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse women's basketball team advanced to the second round of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament (presented by Culver's) with a 57-44 victory over UW-Platteville Friday night in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles, the tournament's fifth-seed, improve to 14-11 on the season and will play at fourth-seeded UW-Oshkosh in the second round Monday, February 21 at 7 p.m. UW-Platteville, the eighth-seed, finishes its season at 10-15. 

In the first-ever meeting between the teams in the WIAC Tournament, the first quarter featured seven lead changes. UW-Platteville scored the first four points of the game. The Pioneers took a 10-9 lead with 1:59 remaining in the quarter on Sarah Mueller's layup, but Paige Schumann's layup with 1:38 left gave the Eagles a 11-10 lead after the opening quarter. 

Maiah Domask's layup with 2:45 remaining in the second quarter provided UW-Platteville with a 19-18 advantage, but Carly Coulthart's three-pointer with 1:29 left and Kyah Steiner's layup with :35 remaining gave UWL a 23-19 halftime lead.

UWL opened the third quarter 9-2 run to take a 32-21 lead with 5:19 left on a Emma Gamoke layup. The Eagles took their largest lead of the game to that point at 37-25 with 3:56 remaining on Lauryn Milne's three-point play. UW-Platteville went on a 9-0 run to cut the deficit to 37-34 on Mueller's three-pointer with :36 left. Lexie Higgins made a pair of free throws with :07 remaining to give UWL a 39-34 lead after three quarters. 

After Aspyn Stewart made a three-point basket for the Pioneers to open the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 39-37, the Eagles used an 8-1 run to lead 47-38 with 5:18 left on Alana Gilles' layup. UW-Platteville could get no closer than seven points the rest of the game. 
 

UWL shot 39.2% from the field, including 36.4% (four-of-11) from three-point range, and 76.5% (13-of-17) at the free throw line. Steiner led the Eagles with 13 points while Schumann and Gamoke each finished with nine. Gamoke tied the school record (161) for career three-point field goals made with Dani Craig (2017-20).

Gilles had eight points Friday night and Milne seven off the bench. Coulthart had a team-high seven rebounds.

UW-Platteville shot 34.5% from the field, including 17.6% (three-of-17) from three-point range, and 75.0% (three-of-four) at the line. Mueller led the Pioneers with 14 points while also recording eight rebounds. Stewart had seven points while Domask finished with a game-high 16 rebounds.