La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team finished its regular season with a 74-61 victory over UW-River Falls Wednesday night in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles, receiving votes on this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, improves to 19-6 overall and 10-4 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). The Falcons conclude their regular-season at 11-14 overall and 5-9 in the WIAC. 

UWL will be the second-seed for the WIAC Tournament (presented by Culver's) and host a semifinal on Wednesday, February 22 at 7 p.m. The Eagles will host the highest remaining seed. UW-River Falls is the tournament's sixth-seed and travels to third-seeded UW-Whitewater for a first round game on Monday, February 20 at 7 p.m. 

UWL never trailed in Wednesday's win scoring the first four points of the game. UW-River Falls cut the lead to 6-4 on a pair of Logan Jedwabny free throws, but would get no closer the rest of the game. The Eagles led, 18-10, when they used a 10-0 run to take a 28-10 advantage on Jake Gross' three-point field goal with 7:52 remaining in the first half.

UW-River Falls cut the deficit to 33-20 on a Jack Leifker layup, but a pair of Austin Westra free throws and a Dustin Derosusseau jumper gave UWL a 37-20 lead with 2:23 left. Rodrick Payne's three-pointer with 1:21 left cut the lead to 37-24, but Ethan Anderson's jumper with 1:02 remaining gave the Eagles a 39-24 halftime advantage.
 

Westra's jumper with 17:48 remaining gave UWL a 43-28 lead. UW-River Falls went on a 7-0 run to cut it to 43-35 before UWL's Torin Hannah converted a pair of free throws and Henry Noone hit a jumper to give the Eagles a 47-35 advantage. The Eagles later led, 57-42, with 8:25 remaining on an Anderson jumper before the Falcons cut it to 58-50 with 6:39 left on a Dylan Parker layup. 

A pair of Jedwabny free throws cut the lead to 61-55 with 3:59 remaining, but UWL used a 7-0 run to take a 68-55 lead with 2:10 left. The Eagles went eight-of-10 at the free throw line in the final 2:10.

UWL shot 47.2% from the field, including 38.9% (seven-of-18) from three-point range, and 73.9% (17-of-23) at the free throw line. Westra led the Eagles with 21 points and six rebounds while Craig Steele finished with 11 points and four rebounds. 

UW-River Falls shot 36.7% from the field, including 16.7% (four-of-24) from three-point range, and 72.4% (21-of-29) at the line. Jedwabny led the Falcons with 16 points while Payne finished with 12 and Leifker 11. Jedwabny and Mason Anderson each had four rebounds.