Oshkosh, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team earned a 75-69 victory at UW-Oshkosh Saturday night in Kolf Sports Center to improve to 19-4 overall and 10-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC).
The Titans drop to 12-11 overall and 3-9 in the WIAC.
Will Fuhrmann had seven points in the run.
With the win, UWL's clinches a top-two seed for the WIAC Tournament (presented by Culver's). The Eagles are currently in second-place in the league standings with a 10-2 record, one game behind UW-Platteville (11-1).
UWL will host a WIAC Semifinal on Wednesday, February 26 at 7 p.m.
It is UWL's fourth straight win over UW-Oshkosh after a 75-62 victory earlier this season.
UWL, ranked ninth on this week's D3hoops.com Poll, never trailed in Saturday's win. The Eagles scored the game's first five points on a
Karter Thomas three-pointer and
JJ Paider layup. UW-Oshkosh cut the lead to 7-5 with 16:36 left in the first half on a Carter Thomas layup, but UWL went on a 11-0 run to take a 18-5 lead with 12:56 remaining.
Dustin Derousseau had a pair of three-point field goals for the Eagles while
Julian Hodges also made a three-pointer and
Sam Grieger a layup.
The Titans cut the lead to 39-36 with 1:16 left in the first half, but
Khris Green's layup with :55 remaining gave the Eagles a 41-36 halftime lead.
Layups from Derousseau and Grieger to open the second half extended UWL's lead to 45-36. Logan Rindfleisch's jumper cut it to 47-44, but five straight points by the Eagles made it 52-44 with 13:25 remaining.
UWL, winners of three straight games, took its largest lead of 14 points at 69-55 with 6:32 left on a Grieger layup. UW-Oshkosh used a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 69-64 with 3:52 remaining, but Thomas' three-pointer extended UWL's lead to 72-64 with 2:17 left. The Titans could get no closer than four points the rest of the game.
UWL shot 45.0% from the field, including 37.5% (12-of-32) from three-point range, and 60.0% (nine-of-15) at the free throw line.
Sam Grieger finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds
and four assists.
Nine different players scored in Saturday's win. Thomas led the Eagles with 15 points while Grieger finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. Paider totaled nine points and seven rebounds while Derousseau and Hodges each had eight points.
Green and
Will Fuhrmann each had seven points.
UW-Oshkosh shot 44.6% from the field, including 40.9% (nine-of-22) from three-point range, and 76.9% (10-of-13) at the line.
Carter Thomas and Matt Imig led the Titans with 17 points each.
UWL returns to action Wednesday, February 19 at UW-River Falls at 7 p.m.
