La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team had its three-game winning streak snapped with an 80-77 loss to 11th-ranked UW-Platteville Saturday night in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles drop to 11-8 overall and 5-3 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Pioneers improve to 16-3 overall and 7-1 in the WIAC. 

With the win, UW-Platteville takes a two-game lead in the conference standings over UWL and UW-River Falls. The Pioneers also earned the regular-season sweep of the Eagles after a 68-64 win in Platteville on January 13. 
 

The game featured 12 lead changes on Saturday. UW-Platteville took a 10-2 lead with 14:44 left in the first half on a Logan Pearson three-pointer, but six straight points from UWL's Khris Green cut the lead to 10-8. The Pioneers' Ben Probst and Miles Hettinger made back-to-back three-pointers to extend the lead to 16-8. Green scored nine straight points for the Eagles, hitting a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 16-11. Torin Hannah and Sam Grieger each made three-point field goals to give UWL a 17-16 lead as the Eagles went on a 9-0 run. 

UWL took a 30-25 lead with 4:08 left in the first half on a Grieger three-pointer. After a Pearson jumper cut it to 30-27, Hannah made a pair of free throws with 3:36 remaining to give UWL a 32-27 advantage. UW-Platteville ended the half on a 12-0 run to take a 39-32 lead, including Pearson's three-point field goal with :02 left. 

The Eagles took a 46-45 lead with 15:32 remaining on a Dustin Derousseau three-pointer. UW-Platteville led, 52-50, when Pearson scored six straight points to extend the lead to 58-50 with 11:41 left. Probst's jumper with 9:55 remaining made it 62-57 when UWL used a 6-0 run to take a 63-62 lead on Hannah's three-point field goal with 7:51 left. 

Brady Nies' layup with 4:03 remaining gave UW-Platteville a 74-71 lead. Hannah (2:56) and Grieger (2:26) made jumpers to give UWL a 75-74 lead. Pearson's two free throws wiht 2:23 remaining gave the Pioneers a 76-75 lead, but Grieger's jumper with 1:28 left gave the lead back to UWL a 77-76. After a UW-Platteville turnover, Grieger missed two free throws with 1:06 remaining and Probst's jumper with :43 left gave UW-Platteville a 78-77 lead. Derousseau also missed a pair of free throws with :25 remaining to keep it a one-point game. Pearson was fouled and made both shots from the charity stripe to give UW-Platteville a 80-77 lead with :20 left. Hannah missed a potential game-tying three-pointer with :04 left and Green missed a three-point attempt at the buzzer. 

UWL shot 50.9% from the field, including 37.5% (nine-of-24) from three-point range, and 60.9% (14-of-23) at the free throw line. The Eagles shot 60.0% (18-of-30) from the field in the second half, but only 46.2% (six-of-13) at the line.  

Hannah led UWL with 20 points, going seven-of-12 from the field, including four-of-eight from three-point range, and two-of-two at the line. Grieger scored 19 points off the bench, finishing seven-of-nine from the field, including two-of-two from three-point range. He was three-of-six at the line. Green scored 12 points off the bench while Paider finished with 11 points and team-high eight rebounds. Green was four-of-six from the field, including two-of-three from three-point range, and two-of-three at the line. JJ Paider was three-of-five from the field and five-of-six at the line. 

UW-Platteville, ranked 11th on this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, shot 47.6% from the field, including 42.9% (nine-of-21) from three-point range, and 91.7% (11-of-12) at the line. The Pioneers were nine-of-nine at the line in the second half. 

Pearson led UW-Platteville with 38 points and 10 rebounds, going 12-of-19 from the field, including four-of-four from three-point range. He was 10-of-10 at the line. Probst finished with 21 points. 

UWL returns to action Wednesday, January 31 hosting UW-River Falls at 7 p.m.