Menomonie, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team fell 74-68 at UW-Stout Wednesday night in Johnson Fieldhouse. The Eagles drop to 12-10 overall and 6-5 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Blue Devils improve to 10-12 overall and 5-6 in the conference.
The loss snaps UWL's four-game winning streak over UW-Stout. The Eagles earned a 77-69 victory on January 10 in La Crosse. UWL entered the game winners of 12 of the last 13 meetings with UW-Stout.
UWL took a 68-65 lead on Wednesday night with 1:29 left in the game on a Will Fuhrman jumper, but UW-Stout would score the final nine points to earn the victory. Brody Fox made a pair of free throws with 1:12 remaining to cut it to 68-67. After a pair of missed shots by the Eagles, Jacob Walczak connected on a three-pointer with :26 left to give the Blue Devils a 70-68 advantage.
The Eagles missed a jumper and had a turnover after getting the offensive rebound with :14 remaining. Brenden Weise made two free throws for a 72-68 lead with :12 left and after another missed three-point shot by UWL, Weise converted a pair of free throws with :03 remaining for the final margin.
UW-Stout took a 16-11 lead on a Sam Skaggs' free throw when UWL used a 10-0 run to take a 21-16 lead with 8:42 remaining in the first half on a
Jake Gross jumper. The Blue Devils responded with a 9-0 run of their own to take a 25-21 lead on a Fox layup. UW-Stout led 31-25 with 3:22 left on a Aidan Shore dunk, but UWL went on a 9-2 run to take a 34-33 lead with :25 remaining on a Fuhrmann layup. UW-Stout led, 36-34, at halftime on George Scharlau's three-pointer with :12 left.
After Fox gave UW-Stout its largest lead of the game at 48-40 with 15:24 left on a pair of free throws, UWL went on a 9-2 run to make it 50-49 with 11:46 remaining. The Blue Devils went on a 7-2 run to take a 57-51 lead, but
Austin Westra scored five points to cut the lead to 58-56 with 7:45 left. Fox hit two free throws to make it 60-56 when Westra made back-to-back layups to tie the game.
Vince Vandervest's jumper with 6:05 left gave UWL a 62-61 lead and Westra went two-of-four at the line to make it 64-61. Westra's layup with 3:21 remaining gave UWL a 66-65 lead followed by Fuhrmann's jumper to make it 68-65, but the Eagles missed their final five shots from the field.
UWL shot 38.4% from the field, including 9.5% (two-of-21) from three-point range, and 62.5% (10-of-16) at the free throw line. The Eagles missed all nine of their three-point attempts in the first half. UWL scored 42 points in the paint. Westra led UWL with 28 points off the bench, going 11-of-19 from the field, including one-of-one from three-point range, and five-of-eight at the line. He also had a team-high seven rebounds and four steals. Gross and
Dustin Derousseau each added nine points for the Eagles while
Khris Green totaled seven.
UW-Stout shot 41.1% from the field, including 35.3% (six-of-17) from three-point range, and 75.9% (22-of-29) at the line. The Blue Devils were 19-of-23 (82.6%) at the free throw line in the second half. Fox led the Blue Devils with 31 points, going 15-of-19 at the line. Scharlau recorded a double-double with 17 points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Shore finished with 10 points.
UWL returns to action Saturday, February 10 hosting UW-Whitewater at 5 p.m.
