La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team improved to 18-4 overall and 9-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) with a 70-56 victory over UW-Whitewater Wednesday night in Mitchell Hall. The Warhawks drop to 10-12 overall and 4-7 in the WIAC.
UWL, ranked ninth on this week's D3hoops.com Poll, have now won seven of the last nine meetings with UW-Whitewater. With the victory, the Eagles sweep the regular season series after an 80-75 win at UW-Whitewater on January 25.
Sam Grieger finished with 19 points in Wednesday's win.
The Warhawks took a 8-6 lead with 16:26 left in the first half on a Isaac Verges three-pointer, but the Eagles went on a 10-0 run to take a 16-8 lead with 13:19 remaining.
Karter Thomas' three-point field goal with 16:10 left gave UWL a 9-8 advantage and the Eagles would never trail the rest of the game. Thomas had seven points in the run.
Collin Madson made a layup for UW-Whitewater with 9:16 remaining to cut the lead to 16-15. The Warhawks later trailed, 26-24, after Verges' three-pointer with 4:53 left, when layups from
Sam Grieger and
Torin Hannah and a Hannah free throw extended the Eagles' lead to 31-24. UWL led, 31-26, at halftime after the Warhawks' Richie Warren's jumper with :45 remaining.
UW-Whitewater cut it to 31-28 with the first points of the second half on a Madson layup, but the Warhawks could get no closer the rest of the contest. Four straight points from
JJ Paider made it 35-28.
UWL led 44-36 with 11:49 remaining when it used a 8-2 run to lead 52-38 with 10:15 left after
Julian Hodges' three-pointer.
A Luke Bara layup with 5:49 remaining later cut UW-Whitewater's deficit to 57-50 when Grieger's dunk and back-to-back three-point field goals from Hannah and Thomas later made it 65-52 with 3:33 left. UWL led by as many as 16 points.
UWL shot 50.9% from the field, including 30.0% (six-of-20) from three-point range, and 53.3% (eight-of-15) at the free throw line.
JJ Paider had nine points, five rebounds
and three assists.
Grieger led the Eagles with 19 points while Thomas totaled 18. Grieger added three rebounds, three assists and two steals with Thomas finishing with five rebounds. Paider totaled nine points, five rebounds and three assists.
UW-Whitewater shot 34.3% from the field Wednesday, including 14.8% (four-of-27) from three-point range, and 80.0% (four-of-five) at the line. The Warhawks missed all 11 of their three-point attempts in the second half.
Verges and Richie Warren led UW-Whitewater with 16 points each. Warren had seven rebounds while Verges finished with six rebounds and three steals. Carter Capstran had a team-high nine rebounds.
UWL returns to action Saturday, February 15 at UW-Oshkosh at 5 p.m.
