River Falls, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team, ranked seventh on D3hoops.com, earned its fourth straight win with a 80-72 victory at UW-River Falls Wednesday night. The Eagles improve to 19-3 on the season and 9-3 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Falcons drop to 11-9 overall and 4-7 in the conference. 

With the win and UW-Platteville's 78-75 home loss to UW-Whitewater, UWL moves into first-place in the WIAC standings with two games remaining.  UW-Platteville is 8-3 and UW-Oshkosh 8-2 in the WIAC.

UW-River Falls raced out to a 8-2 lead Wednesday on Marshall Holland's three-point play, but UWL went on a 13-3 run to take a 15-11 lead on an Ethan Anderson jumper. Jake Reeck's jumper for the Falcons cut it to 18-15 with 8:11 remaining in the first half. Anderson scored five straight points to give the Eagles a 23-15 advantage. 

UWL led, 32-24, when it used a 10-2 run to end the half for a 42-26 lead. 

The Eagles took their largest lead of the game at 47-30 with 17:29 remaining on an Seth Anderson jumper. UW-River Falls scored the game's next six points to cut the deficit to 47-36, but a pair of free throws and a layup from Torin Hannah gave UWL a 51-36 lead. 

UW-River Falls later cut the lead to 56-51 with 10:05 remaining on Regan Merritt's jumper, but the Falcons could get no closer the rest of the game. Ethan Anderson's dunk gave UWL a 70-54 advantage with 4:42 left. The Falcons made it 74-69 with 1:33 remaining, but the Eagles went six-of-eight at the free throw line in the final 1:13.

UWL, now 11-1 on the road this season, shot 45.0% from the field in Wednesday's win, including 50.0% (10-of-20) from three-point range, and 64.0% (16-of-25) at the line. Ethan Anderson led the Eagles with 25 points, going seven-of-10 from the field, including one-of-two from three-point range, and 10-of-12 at the free throw line. Henry Noone finished with 17 points, going five-of-eight from three-point range. Hannah finished with 11 points while Wyatt Cook had 10. Sean Suchomel led UWL with nine rebounds, three assists and two steals. 

UW-River Falls 49.0% from the field, including 31.3% (five-of-16) from three-point range, and 51.4% (19-of-37) at the line. Rodrick Payne led the Falcons with 15 points while Reeck had 12. Holland and Noah Hanson each had 11 points with Hanson finishing with a game-high 11 rebounds. Payne also recorded a double-double with 10 rebounds. 

The game included 50 fouls as the teams combined to finish 35-of-62 at the line.

UWL returns to action Saturday, February 12 at third-ranked UW-Oshkosh at 8 p.m.