River Falls, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team opened the second half of Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) play with a 80-75 victory at UW-River Falls Wednesday night in Page Arena.

The Eagles, receiving votes on the D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll, improve to 14-5 overall and 4-4 in the WIAC while the Falcons drop to 7-12 overall and 2-6 in the conference.

UWL has won 12 of the last 15 meetings with UW-River Falls. The Eagles earned a 84-72 win earlier this season.

UW-River Falls scored the first six points of the Wednesday before UWL's JJ Paider's layup and Jack Crowley's three-pointer cut the lead to 6-5. The Eagles took their first lead at 13-12 with 13:11 left on Dustin Derousseau's layup. Reggie Postel's layup and Jeremy Wanguhu's three-pointer gave the Falcons a 17-13 lead.

UWL went on a 8-2 run to take a 21-19 lead on Sam Grieger's three-point field goal with 9:15 remaining. UW-River Falls later took a 28-24 lead but an 8-3 run by UWL gave the Eagles a 32-31 lead on Jacob Butler's three-pointer with 3:59 left.

Micah Thompson's layup with 1:22 remaining gave UW-River Falls a 40-36 lead before Derousseau's three-pointer with :30 left cut the halftime deficit to 40-39.

UW-River Falls took a 53-50 lead with 14:14 remaining on Reid Tengblad's three-pointer. UWL went on a 7-0 run to take a 57-53 advantage with 12:27 left on a pair of Paider free throws. The Eagles would not trail the rest of the contest.

The Falcons later cut the lead to 65-63 with 7:44 remaining on a Postel jumper when Derousseau made four free throws to give the Eagles a 69-63 lead. Gavin Ralph made two free throws with 2:13 left for UW-River Falls to cut the deficit to 73-71, but UWL scored the game's next five points to take a 78-71 lead, including a three-point play by Crowley. UW-River Falls could get no closer than the final margin of five.

UWL shot 37.3% from the field, including 28.0% (seven-of-25) from three-point range, and 69.7% (23-of-33) at the free throw line.

Grieger led the Eagles with 28 points and four assists while adding seven rebounds. Derousseau finished with 20 points, six rebounds and team-high four steals. Crowley added 16 points. Paider had seven points and team-high nine rebounds.

UW-River Falls shot 51.7% from the field, including 28.6% (six-of-21) from three-point range, and 56.3% (nine-of-16) at the line.

Wanguhu led the Falcons with 19 points and eight rebounds. Tengblad added 14 points, seven rebounds and six blocks while Thompson had 10 points and eight rebounds.

UWL returns to action Wednesday, February 4 at UW-Whitewater at 7 p.m.