Platteville, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team fell 89-68 at UW-Platteville Friday night in the championship game of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Tournament (presented by Culver's) on Bo Ryan Court in Williams Fieldhouse.
UWL, ranked fourth on this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, drops to 22-5 on the season while UW-Platteville, ranked third, improves to 25-2.
With the win, UW-Platteville earns an automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Championships. UWL will await word if its earned an at-large bid.
JJ Paider finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds Friday night.
The NCAA Division III tournament field will be announced Monday, March 3 at 11 a.m.
UWL took a 10-7 lead with 13:13 left in the first half on a
JJ Paider layup when UW-Platteville's Miles Hettinger made a layup and Bristol Lewis a three-pointer to give the Pioneers a 12-10 lead.
UW-Platteville later took a 16-11 lead with 10:59 remaining on a pair of Brady Olson free throws. UWL used a 6-2 run to trail 18-17 on Paider's layup with 9:23 left.
The Pioneers responded with a 21-3 run to take a 39-20 advantage with 2:23 left on a Logan Pearson three-point field goal.
UWL closed the half on an 8-2 run to cut the halftime deficit to 41-28.
UW-Platteville opened the second half on a 12-3 run to take a 53-31 lead with 16:53 remaining on Olson's three-pointer.
Trailing 73-51 with 8:28 left, Paider's free throw and layup followed by a
Dustin Derousseau dunk cut the lead to 73-56 with 7:12 left. The Pioneers went on a 9-2 run to extend the lead to 82-58 with 3:34 remaining.
The Eagles could get no closer than 16 points the rest of the game.
UWL shot 41.1% from the field, including 28.6% (six-of-21) from three-point range, and 64.0% (16-of-25) at the free throw line.
Paider led the Eagles with 19 points and 10 rebounds while Derousseau finished with 14 points.
Will Fuhrmann,
Khris Green and
Karter Thomas each totaled seven.
UW-Platteville shot 52.4% from the field, including 48.0% (12-of-25) from three-point range, and 84.6% (11-of-13) at the line.
Dustin Derousseau totaled 14 points.
Pearson led five players in double figures with 22 points. Olson finished with 15 points, Ben Probst 13, Joey Fuhremann 12 and Lewis 11.
UWL, seeded second in the tournament, earned a 69-55 home victory over UW-Eau Claire in the WIAC Tournament Semifinals on Wednesday. The win set a single-season school record with 22 victories. The Eagles won 21 games in three different seasons, finishing 21-6 in 1975-76 and 2019-10 and 21-7 in 2021-22.
Top-seeded UW-Platteville earned an 83-73 home victory over fourth-seeded UW-Stevens Point in the WIAC Semifinals.
Making its 22nd appearance in the WIAC Tournament, which began in 1999, UWL was playing in its third championship game in school history Friday. UWL dropped both of its previous championship game appearances, falling 83-68 at UW-Stevens Point in 2007 and 74-47 to UW-Platteville in 2021.
UWL is now 13-22 all-time in conference tournament play and made its 12th appearance in the semifinals (2006-07, 2012, 2014, 2016-17, 2019-23, 2025) Wednesday night.
UW-Platteville now leads the all-time series, 7-1, versus UWL in the WIAC Tournament. The teams last met in the 2022 semifinals with the Pioneers earning a 74-51 victory. Along with the championship game victory in 2021, UW-Platteville has also earned wins over UWL in the 1999 quarterfinals (76-65), in the 2019 semifinals (61-51) and two victories in the first round (66-63 in 2011; 60-58 in 2013).
The Eagles earned their lone win in the tournament with the Pioneers in the first round in 2012 (57-56). UW-Platteville has now won five (1999, 2019, 2021, 2024, 2025) WIAC Tournament titles.
UW-Platteville swept this year's regular season meetings, earning an 83-75 victory in La Crosse on January 8 and 83-73 in Platteville on February 5.
