Platteville, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team had its two-game winning streak snapped with a 68-64 loss at 16th-ranked UW-Platteville Saturday night at Bo Ryan Court in Williams Fieldhouse. 

The Eagles drop to 8-7 overall and 2-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Pioneers improve to 13-2 overall and 4-0 in the conference. UW-Platteville is ranked 16th on this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll.

Trailing 5-2, UWL took a 9-5 lead with a 7-0 run after a Dustin Derousseau dunk, Torin Hannah layup and Derousseau three-pointer. The Eagles led by as many as six points in the opening half, including 26-20 with 10:30 left on a JJ Paider layup. Tarek Abdel Kireem's three-point field goal with 9:04 remaining gave UWL a 29-24 advantage. 

UW-Platteville went on a 11-2 run to take a 35-31 lead with 3:33 left after a pair of Ben Probst free throws. Sam Grieger converted a pair of free throws and Austin Westra's jumper tied the game at 35-35. Hannah completed the 7-0 run with a three-pointer with 1:55 remaining to give the Eagles a 38-35 lead. Logan Pearson's jumper for the Pioneers with :59 left cut the halftime deficit to 38-35.

Max Love's layup with 16:27 remaining gave UW-Platteville a 47-43 lead when UWL used a 7-0 run to take a 50-47 advantage after a Grieger three-pointer and jumper and Westra layup. The Eagles took a 54-51 lead on another Westra layup with 12:23 left, but back-to-back three-pointers from Love and Probst gave the Pioneers a 57-54 lead with 11:12 remaining. The back-and-forth game continued as Paider's dunk and layup gave UWL a 58-57 advantage. 

Probst and Joey Fuhremann hit shots give UW-Platteville a 61-58 lead with 6:24 left. After Westra's free throw cut the lead to 61-59, Pearson's jumper with 3:14 remaining gave the Pioneers a 63-59 lead. Will Fuhrmann responded with a three-pointer for UWL with 2:25 left to make it 63-62. Pearson hit a three-pointer (2:07 left) and Fuhrmann's layup (1:53) made it 66-64. After a Pearson missed jumper with :32 remaining, Grieger missed a three-point attempt with :06 left. Brady Olson hit two free throws with :04 remaining for the final margin.

UWL shot 41.7% from the field Saturday, including 25.0% (six-of-24) from three-point range, and 72.7% (eight-of-11) at the free throw line. Paider led the Eagles with 16 points and nine rebounds, finishing seven-of-nine from the field and two-of-two at the line. Grieger and Westra each finished with nine points while Derousseau had seven. 

UW-Platteville 42.6% from the field, including 35.0% (seven-of-20) from three-point range, and 90.0% (nine-of-10) at the line. Probst led the Pioneers with 23 points with Pearson finishing with 17 and Love 13. Fuhremann had a game-high 10 rebounds.

UWL returns to action Wednesday, January 17 at UW-Oshkosh at 7 p.m.