La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team, ranked ninth on D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, advanced to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Semifinals (presented by Culver's) with a 74-70 win over UW-Stevens Point in Tuesday's second round in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles improve to 20-5 on the season while the Pointers drop to 4-17. 

With the victory, UWL secures its seventh 20-win season in school history. The Eagles advance to the WIAC Semifinals Thursday, February 24 at UW-Platteville at 7 p.m. It UWL's 10th appearance in the WIAC Tournament Semifinals, including fourth straight. The Eagles advanced to the championship game a year ago, falling 74-47 to UW-Platteville in Mitchell Hall.

The Eagles earned their eighth straight win over the Pointers with Tuesday's victory. UWL is now 2-4 all-time against UW-Stevens Point in the WIAC Tournament, including its second straight win. The Eagles earned a 76-68 victory over the Pointers in last year's opening round.  

Trailing 4-2 on Tuesday, UWL went on a 8-0 run to lead 10-4 on Seth Anderson's jumper. The Eagles took a 16-11 lead on Torin Hannah's layup with 13:10 remaining in the first half, but the Pointers cut the deficit to 18-17 on Brady Wagner's three-pointer with 11:32 left. Ethan Anderson hit a pair of free throws with 9:51 remaining to give UWL a 25-23 advantage, but UW-Stevens Point used a 10-2 run to take a 33-27 lead with 4:57 left on a Wagner three-point basket. 

UWL, the tournament's third-seed, responded scoring the next seven points to regain the lead at 34-33 on a Craig Steele three-pointer. Jake Buchanan's layup gave UW-Stevens Point a 35-34 lead with 2:03 left, but Seth Anderson hit back-to-back layups to give UWL a 38-35 halftime lead. 

UW-Stevens Point took a 46-44 lead with 16:20 remaining in the game on Garrett Nelson's three-point play, but UWL went on a 11-0 run to lead 55-46 on Ethan Anderson's jumper with 12:44 left. The Pointers, the tournament's eighth-seed, cut the lead to 55-49 on Wagner's three-pointer with 12:20 remaining. A pair of jumpers from Ethan Anderson and a Steele three-pointer gave UWL a 62-49 advantage.  The Pointers then went on a 11-2 run to cut the deficit to 64-60 on Darius Bolden's three-pointer. 

The Eagles scored the next six points to extend the lead to 70-60 with 3:38 left. Nelson's layup, Wagner's three-pointer and Buchanan's layup for the Pointers cut the lead to 70-67. Hannah hit a free throw with 1:25 remaining to make it 71-67 when Buchanan connected on a three-point basket to cut it to 71-70 with :56 left. Wyatt Cook made one of two free throws with :39 remaining to give UWL a 72-70 lead. Nelson missed a potential game-leading three-pointer with :22 left and Sean Suchomel converted one-of-two free throws with :18 remaining for a 73-70 lead. Buchanan's three-pointer was missed with :08 left and Seth Anderson finished the scoring with a free throw with :05 left for a four-point lead.
 

UWL shot 55.8% from the field, including 28.6% (four-of-14) from three-point range, and 48.0% (12-of-25) at the free throw line. Ethan Anderson led the Eagles with 21 points while Austin Westra finished with 14 points, five rebounds and two blocks off the bench. Seth Anderson had 13 points and five rebounds. Cook totaled nine points, six rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block while Hannah had five points, six rebounds and three assists. Suchomel had six assists and five rebounds. 

UW-Stevens Point shot 45.6% from the field, including 51.7% (15-of-29) from three-point range, and 100.0% (three-of-three) at the line. Wagner led the Pointers with 20 points off the bench, going six-of-seven from three-point range. Buchanan finished with 19 points while Nelson had 10. Bolden had a game-high nine rebounds.