Superior, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team fell to 0-2 on the season with a 61-54 loss to Concordia College-Moorhead (Minn.) Saturday afternoon in UW-Superior's Merrill Thompson Classic in Mertz Mortorelli Gymnasium. The Cobbers improve to 3-0 on the season with the win.
The Eagles raced out to a 8-2 start with four points each from
Dustin Derousseau and
Will Fuhrmann. Concordia (Minn.) cut the to lead to 8-6, but UWL used a 7-0 run to extend its lead to 15-6 with 13:07 left in the first half on a five straight points from
Sam Grieger. Kaden Pieper's layup for the Cobbers cut the lead to 16-12, but a
Tarek Abdel Kireem jumper and
Ben Goedheer free throw gave the Eagles a 19-12 advantage with 8:17 remaining.
Trailing 23-17 with 5:12 left, Concordia (Minn.) went on a 11-0 run to end the half to take a 28-23 lead at intermission. Jackson Loge scored six points in the run.
Derousseau's jumper to start the second half cut the lead to 28-25 and UWL later cut it to 33-31 with 14:49 left on a Fuhrmann jumper. Concordia (Minn.) used another 11-0 run to make it 44-31 with 9:45 remaining on a Jacob Cook three-pointer. The Eagles used a 19-7 run of their own to cut the lead to 51-50 with 5:32 left on
Griffin Ginder's layup. After a pair of free throws from Zach Jackson gave Concordia (Minn.) a 53-50 lead, Fuhrmann's layup made it a one-point game with 2:31 remaining.
The Cobbers scored the next eight points to take a 61-52 lead with :11 left as the Eagles missed five consecutive shots from the field. Fuhrmann's layup with :04 remaining provided the final scoring of the game.
UWL shot 37.1% from the field Saturday, including 13.6% (six-of-22) from three-point range, and 62.5% (five-of-eight) at the free throw line. Fuhrmann led the Eagles with 20 points, going nine-of-17 from the field, including two-of-nine from three-point range. He tied his career-high set versus UW-Platteville last season. Derousseau finished with 13 points Saturday while Grieger had seven points and game-high 10 rebounds.
Concordia (Minn.) shot 32.7% from the field, including 31.3% (five-of-16) from three-point range, and 84.6% (22-of-24) at the line. Matthew Johnson led the Cobbers with 17 points while Loge added 15 points and team-high nine rebounds. Rowan Nelson had eight points and also nine rebounds.
UWL returns to action Saturday, November 18 hosting Bethel University (Minn.) at 6 p.m in the Eagles' home opener in Mitchell Hall.
