La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team wrapped up its regular season with a 74-60 victory over UW-Stevens Point Saturday night in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles improve to 21-4 overall and 112-2 in the WIAC while the Pointers drop to 17-8 overall and 7-7 in the conference.
With the victory, UWL ties its single-season school record for wins with 21. The Eagles also won 21 games in 1975-76 (21-6), 2019-20 (21-6) and 2021-22 (21-7). UWL's 12 league wins this year are the most since finishing 12-4 in 2006-07.
JJ Paider finished with 21 points in Saturday's win.
UWL, ranked fifth on this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, earned its 14th straight win over UW-Stevens Point on Saturday after an 84-83 overtime victory on January 11.
The Eagles honored their six seniors,
Will Fuhrmann,
Griffin Ginder,
Khris Green,
Torin Hannah,
Julian Hodges and
Mack Sebert, on Saturday.
The game had seven lead changes in the first half. UWL took a 11-7 lead with 11:41 left on a Green layup, but UW-Stevens Point went on a 7-2 run to take a 14-13 lead with 9:24 remaining on Josiah Butler's layup. The Pointers took their largest lead of the game at 20-16 with 7:41 left on Logan Baumgartner's three-point field goal.
UWL responded with an 11-1 run to take a 27-21 lead with 2:08 remaining after
JJ Paider's two free throws. UW-Stevens Point scored the final five points of the first half on a Seth Miron jumper and Malik Abdul-Wahid three-pointer to cut the halftime lead to 27-26.
Sam Grieger had 13 points and five rebounds.
Sam Grieger scored UWL's first four points of the second half. Butler's two free throws with 18:25 left for UW-Whitewater cut the lead to 31-30. UWL used a 12-2 run to extend its lead to 43-32 with 15:35 remaining on Paider's layup.
UW-Stevens Point cut the lead to 45-40 with 13:24 left on Cal Krohn's three-point field goal, but
Dustin Derousseau's three-pointer and seven straight points from Paider gave UWL a 55-40 lead with 11:04 remaining.
The Eagles took their largest lead at 59-42 with 8:27 left on a Derousseau layup. The Pointers could get no closer than nine points the rest of the game.
UWL shot 49.1% from the field Saturday, including 65.4% (17-of-26) in the second half. The Eagles shot 27.8% (five-of-18) from three-point range for the game and 85.0% (17-of-20) at the free throw line.
Paider led UWL with 21 points while Derousseau recorded a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds while adding five assists and two steals. Grieger finished with 13 points with Green and
Karter Thomas each having seven.
Khris Green had seven points off the bench.
UW-Stevens Point shot 40.4% from the field, including 28.0% (seven-of-25) from three-point range, and 58.3% (seven-of-12) at the line.
Butler led the Pointers with 14 points while Darrius Bolden totaled 11.
UWL hosts a WIAC Tournament Semifinal (presented by Culver's) on Wednesday, February 26 at 7 p.m. The Eagles, the tournament's second seed, will host the highest remaining seed.
