Box Score La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team picked up a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) win on Wednesday night when they defeated UW-Stout, 82-42, at Mitchell Hall. The Eagles, receiving votes in this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 poll, are now 18-5 overall and 9-3 in the WIAC. UW-Stout falls to 5-17 overall and 1-11 in conference action.
 

The Eagles scored the first seven points of the game and never trailed. UWL took a 10-4 lead on a three-pointer by Torin Hannah with 15:47 left in the opening period. After a Blue Devils three-pointer by Preston Briggs cut it to 10-7, UWL scored the next 10 points to lead 20-7 with 11:40 left. Another three-pointer from Hannah and one from Austin Westra sparked the Eagles run. UW-Stout cut their deficit to 22-15; however, UWL went on a 12-0 run to lead 34-15 with 4:04 left in the first half. The Eagles led 37-21 at the half.

In the first half, the Eagles shot 14-of-34 (41.2%) from the floor, including five-for-15 (33.3%) from the three-point line. Will Fuhrmann led the Eagles in the first half with 12 points while Westra had seven points and three assists. 

UW-Stout shot 10-of-29 (34.5%) from the floor and one-of-seven (14.3%) from the three-point line. Aidan Shore had eight points in the first half for the Blue Devils.

UW-Stout scored nine of the first 13 points to start the second half as it cut the deficit to 41-30 with 13:51 left in the game. However, that would be as close as the Blue Devils would get in the second half as UWL responded with a 16-0 run to lead 56-30 with 8:40 left in the second half. Josh Crubaugh's three-pointer for the Eagles with 1:07 remaining gave UWL its largest lead of the game at 82-42. 

JJ Paider led the Eagles with a game-high 14 points and seven rebounds. Also in double figures for UWL was Fuhrmann and Craig Steele with 12 points each. Westra added nine points and four assists. 
 

As a team, the Eagles finished 28-of-59 (47.5%) from the floor, including 11-of-25 (44.0%) from the three-point line. UWL was 15-of-23 (65.2%) at the free throw line. 

UW-Stout finished 17-of-49 (34.7%) from the floor, including two-of-10 (20.0%) from the three-point line. The Blue Devils were six-of-14 (42.9%) at the free throw line. Aidan Shore led UW-Stout with nine points and five rebounds while George Scharlau added eight points and eight rebounds. UW-Stout finished with a 37-33 advantage on the boards. 

UWL will be back in action on Saturday, February 11 when they travel to UW-Oshkosh for a 5 p.m. start.