La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team, ranked 10th on this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, improved to 15-3 overall and 6-1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) with a 80-75 victory at UW-Whitewater Saturday night in Kachel Gymnasium.
 
The Warhawks drop to 9-9 overall and 3-4 in the WIAC.
 
UWL has won six of the last eight meetings with UW-Whitewater.
 
UW-Whitewater led 7-6 Saturday on Luke Bara's layup, but Will Fuhrmann's three-pointer gave UWL a 9-7 advantage. The game was tied, 9-9, when Dustin Derousseau and Fuhrmann scored to give the Eagles an 13-9 lead with 14:25 left in the first half. UWL would never trail the rest of the game.
 

The Warhawks cut the deficit to 23-22 on a Jake Quast jumper, but the Eagles scored the game's next five points to take a 28-22 lead with 6:46 remaining on Griffin Ginder's free throw. Bara's jumper cut it to 28-24, but Torin Hannah's three-pointer gave UWL a 31-24 lead. The Eagles took their largest lead at 39-29 with 2:52 left on Karter Thomas' three-pointer. Thomas scored six straight points for the Eagles.
 
Collin Madson's three-point field goal at the first half buzzer for UW-Whitewater cut the lead to 41-35.
 
UWL took a 52-40 lead with 17:01 remaining on a Fuhrmann layup. UW-Whitewater went on a 8-0 run to cut it 52-48 with 14:09 left on a Richie Warren layup. The Eagles took a 62-52 lead on JJ Paider's free throw with 9:41 remaining.
 
UW-Whitewater later cut the lead to 70-69 with 5:28 left on Madson's layup, but Sam Grieger's three-pointer gave UWL a 73-69 lead with 5:16 remaining. Carter Capstran's three-point field goal cut it to 74-73 with 2:39 left. After a pair of Paider free throws with 1:53 remaining gave UWL a 76-73 advantage, Madson's layup cut it to 76-75 with 1:03 left. He missed the potential game-tying free throw. Paider connected on two free throws with :39 remaining to make it 78-75 and after a Warhawks' turnover, Paider finished the scoring with :07 left on a dunk.
 
UWL shot 54.7% from the field Saturday, including 63.6% (14-of-22) in the second half. The Eagles shot 35.3% (six-of-17) from three-point range in the game and 55.2% (16-of-29) at the free throw line.
 
All five starters scored in double figures with Grieger finishing with a team-high 21 points and nine rebounds. He was 10-of-14 from the field. Thomas finished with 15 points while Derousseau totaled 14 points, seven rebounds and team-high four assists and three blocks. Fuhrmann and Paider each finished with 11 points.
 
UW-Whitewater shot 42.3% from the field, including 23.1% (six-of-26) from three-point range, and 60.0% (nine-of-15) at the line.
 
Madson led the Warhawks with 17 points while Carter Capstran finished with 13 points and nine rebounds. Jameer Barker had 11 points. Quast added nine points and team-high 10 rebounds.
 
UWL returns to action Wednesday, January 29 hosting UW-Stout at 7 p.m.


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