Eau Claire, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team dropped its fourth straight game with a 77-74 loss at UW-Eau Claire Saturday night in Sonnentag Event Center.

UWL, ranked 18th on this week's D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll, falls to 11-5 and 1-4 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC).  UW-Eau Claire, receiving votes on the D3hoops.com Poll, improves to 13-3 overall and 2-3 in the conference.

UW-Eau Claire never trailed in the game, racing out to a 10-2 lead after a Xavier Lewis layup with 17:12 remaining in the first half. Trailing 16-10, UWL went on a 6-1 run to cut the deficit to 17-16 with 10:00 left on a JJ Paider layup.

The Blugolds used a 13-0 run to take a 36-21 lead with 4:06 remaining on Kenji Sacles' three-point field goal. Will Boser's three-pointer gave UW-Eau Claire a 39-23 advantage when UWL went on a 9-0 run to cut it 39-32 with 1:27 left on an Eli Schroeder three-pointer. Andre Renta's three-pointer and layup gave UW-Eau Claire at 44-32 halftime lead.

UW-Eau Claire took its largest lead of the game at 51-32 with 17:52 left on Renta's three-point field goal, but UWL went on a 17-3 run to cut the lead to 54-49 with 12:42 remaining on Paider's three-point play. Schroeder had a pair of three-pointers in the run.

Sam Grieger's two free throws with 10:48 left cut the lead to 57-55 and UWL later tied the game at 60-60 on Dustin Derousseau's three-pointer with 7:34 remaining. After Paider later tied the game at 64-64, Scales made a three-pointer with 4:19 left to give UW-Eau Claire at 67-64 lead.

Two free throws by Grieger with 1:18 remaining cut UW-Eau Claire's lead to 69-68, but Carter Lichtsinn made a three-point field goal with :49 left to make it 72-68. Renta made two free throws with :15 remaining to give the Blugolds a 75-71 lead, but Grieger connected on three free throws to cut the lead to 75-74 with :09 left. Scales converted two free throws with :08 remaining and Paider's three-pointer missed at the buzzer.

UWL shot 51.0% from the field, including 27.3% (six-of-22) from three-point range, and 100.0% (16-of-16) at the free throw line.

Paider led the Eagles with 29 points (career-high) and 13 rebounds while adding two assists and two steals. He became the 20th player in UWL history to score 1,000 career points on Saturday, joining Derousseau and Grieger to reach the milestone this season. 

Grieger finished with 21 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals and Saturday. Schroeder totaled 12 points (career-high) off the bench.

UW-Eau Claire shot 45.8% from the field, including 48.3% (14-of-29) from three-point range and 75.0% (nine-of-12) at the line.

All five starters scored in double figures for the Blugolds with Scales and Renta each totaling 17 points. Lichtsinn and Boser each finished with 12 points and Lewis 10. Lichtsinn had a team-high 10 rebounds.

UWL returns to action Wednesday, January 21 at UW-Stout at 7 p.m.