La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team picked up its first win of the 2023-24 season Saturday night at Mitchell Hall. UWL defeated Bethel University (Minn.) 93-81 to give Head Coach
JT Gritzmacher his first win at UW-La Crosse.
Will Fuhrmann
THE BASICS
Final Score: UW-La Crosse 93, Bethel University (Minn.) 81
Records: UW-La Crosse (1-2), Bethel University (Minn.) (0-2)
Location: Mitchell Hall, La Crosse, Wis.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN
- A Sam Grieger jumper gave UWL a 16-13 lead with 11:51 left in the first half; however, the Royals scored the next eight points to lead 21-16.
- The Eagles responded with a 16-5 run that included back-to-back three-pointers by Dustin Derousseau and Austin Westra.
- After Bethel cut its deficit to 35-31, UWL took its largest lead (46-35) of the first half by outscoring their opponent 11-4. UWL led 46-37 at the half.
- Bethel (Minn.) scored the first five points of the second half (46-41) but UWL quickly extended their lead back to 11 points (52-41) with 18:02 left in the game.
- Trailing 63-49, Bethel (Minn.) scored nine strait including back-to-back threes by Adam Mattes and Payton Thomsen to pull within 63-58 with 11:24 left to force a UWL timeout.
- But that would be as close as the Royals would get as UWL quickly added to their lead taking its largest lead of the game at 88-69 on a dunk by Derousseau.
Sam Grieger
FROM THE BOXSCORE
- Derousseau led the Eagles with 29 points by shooting 10-of-14 (71.4%) from the floor including five-of-eight (62.5%) from the three-point line.
- Fuhrmann finished with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists.
- Grieger came off the bench to record a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds.
- Westra joined three others in double figures as he finished with 16 points to go along with seven reboudns and four assists.
- As a team, UWL shot 31-of-65 (47.7%) from the floor including 11-of-24 (45.8%) from the three-point line.
- Thomsen of Bethel (Minn.) led all scorer with 31 points while Zach Doely finished with 17 points and nine rebounds.
- Bethel (Minn.) shot 29-of-52 (55.8%) from the floor including nine-of-18 (50%) from behind the three-point line.
UP NEXT
- The Eagles return to action on November 21 when they travel to Ripon College (Wis.) for a 7:30 p.m. start.
