Grand Rapids, Mich. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team earned a 76-59 victory over Johns Hopkins University (Md.) Saturday afternoon in the Great Lakes Invitational at Calvin University's (Mich.) Van Noord Arena.
 
The Eagles improve to 4-1 on the season while the Blue Jays drop to 3-2. Both teams are receiving votes on the D3hoops.com Top-25 Preseason Poll.

 

Johns Hopkins (Md.) took a 10-8 lead with 14:12 left in the first half on a Brian Johannson three-pointer, but a free throw from Khris Green, a three-point field goal from Torin Hannah and a JJ Paider free throw gave UWL a 13-10 advantage. The Blue Jays scored the next five points to regain a 15-13 lead with 9:50 remaining. 
 
The back-and-forth first half continued as the Eagles used a 5-0 run of their own to take a 18-15 lead on Sam Grieger's layup. 
 
Johannson's three-pointer with 4:45 left gave Johns Hopkins (Md.) a 27-25 lead with 4:45 left when UWL went on a 9-0 run to lead 34-27. The Eagles took their largest lead of the first half at 39-31 with :52 remaining on a Griffin Ginder three-pointer. UWL led, 39-33, at halftime.
 
Will Fuhrmann's three-pointer to open the second half gave UWL a 42-33 advantage. Grieger's four-point play with 16:07 left later extended the lead to 48-38.
 
Johns Hopkins (Md.) went on a 7-1 run to cut the deficit to 49-45 with 14:11 remaining on John Windley's three-point play. Windley's layup with 9:02 left later cut it to 56-54, but UWL went on a 12-0 run to lead 68-54 with 2:17 remaining. Dustin Derousseau scored seven points in the run.
 
The Blue Jays could get no closer than 11 points the rest of the game.
 

UWL shot 37.9% from the field, including 35.3% (six-of-17) from three-point range, and 76.5% (26-of-34) at the free throw line. Derousseau led the Eagles with 20 points and 10 rebounds while adding two assists and two steals. He was seven-of-eight at the line. Grieger finished with 15 points while Fuhrmann added 12 and Green 10. Paider totaled eight points, eight rebounds and team-high three blocks.

Johns Hopkins (Md.) shot 29.2% from the field, including 29.6% (eight-of-27) from three-point range, and 81.3% (13-of-16) at the line.
 
Windley led the Blue Jays with 20 points while Jeb Williams finished with 14. Johannson had 10 points and team-high 14 rebounds.
 
UWL returns to action Wednesday, November 27 at 12th-ranked Saint John's University (Minn.) at 3 p.m.
 
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