Whitewater, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team earned an 85-75 victory at 21st-ranked UW-Whitewater Wednesday night in the Williams Center. The Eagles improve to 11-7 overall and 5-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Warhawks drop to 13-5 overall and 3-4 in the conference.

It is UWL's eighth straight win in Williams Center. With the win, UWL moves to within one game of first-place UW-Platteville. The Pioneers fell to UW-Stevens Point Wednesday night.

First-year UWL head coach JT Gritzmacher earns the win over his alma mater. He served as a student assistant coach at UW-Whitewater from 2011-13 and as an assistant from 2015-17. Gritzmacher earned his bachelor's degree from UW-Whitewater in 2013. 

UW-Whitewater scored the first nine points Wednesday before UWL's Torin Hannah connected on a three-point field goal with 17:10 left. Trevon Chislom's jumper gave the Warhawks an 11-3 advantage. UW-Whitewater led by many as 10 points in the first half, including 19-9 on James Kelley's hook shot with 12:41 remaining in the first half. UWL responded with a 10-0 run to the game. Sam Grieger had five points in the run, including the tying jumper with 10:34 left. Austin Westra had a basket and Jake Gross a three-pointer in the run. 

After James Barker's layup gave UW-Whitewater a 21-19 lead, Grieger's three-pointer gave UWL its first lead of the game at 22-21 with 9:51 left. The Warhawks took a 31-28 lead, but six straight points (four from Westra; two from JJ Paider) gave UWL a 34-31 lead with 2:44 remaining. UW-Whitewater took a 38-36 halftime lead on Barker's layup with :21 left.

Miles Barnstable gave UW-Whitewater a 40-36 lead on the first basket of the second half, but UWL used a 11-0 run to take a 47--40 lead as Westra scored the last six points. Will Fuhrmann's three-point field goal gave the Eagles a 41-40 lead and UWL would never trail the rest of the game. 

The Warhawks cut the deficit to 55-50 with 13:20 left, but a Westra jumper and Dustin Derousseau extended the Eagles lead to 60-50. UW-Whitewater could get no closer than seven points the rest of the game. UWL went seven-of-eight at the free throw line in the final 1:42. 

UWL shot 53.4% from the field, including 55.6% (10-of-18) from three-point range, and 81.3% (13-of-16) at the free throw line. The Eagles were six-of-eight (75.0%) from three-point range in the second half. 

Westra led five players in double figures with 19 points off the bench, going seven-of-10 from the field and five-of-six at the line. He also had six rebounds. Grieger scored 17 points off the bench Wednesday finishing six-of-eight from the field, including three-of-three from three-point range. He was two-of-two at the line. Gross added 15 points while Paider and Derousseau each had 11. Paider had a game-high seven rebounds.

UWL outscored UW-Whitewater, 38-2, in bench points. 

UW-Whitewater shot 52.5% from the field, including 31.3% (five-of-16) from three-point range, and 44.4% (eight-of-18) at the line. Chislom led the Warhawks with 23 points while Barker finished with 21 and Miles Barnstable 18. 

UWL returns to action Saturday, January 27 hosting 11th-ranked UW-Platteville at 5 p.m.