La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team opened its Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) season with a 84-72 win over UW-River Falls Saturday night in Mitchell Hall.
The Eagles, ranked third on D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll, improve to 11-1 overall. The Falcons drop to 5-7 overall. UW-River Falls was also playing in its conference opener.

UWL has won 11 of the last 14 meetings with UW-River Falls.
 

The Eagles never trailed in Saturday's win, scoring the first five points on a Sam Grieger jumper and three-pointer. UW-River Falls later cut the deficit to 11-10 with 14:47 left in the first half on an Owen Havlik layup, but UWL used a 9-0 run to extend its lead to 20-10. Dustin Derousseau, who went over 1,000 career points in the victory, scored five points in the run. 

Reggie Postel's three-point field goal for the Falcons with 8:30 remaining cut the lead to 31-23 when the Eagles went on a 6-1 run to make it 37-24 with 6:35 left after four straight points from Grieger.

UW-River Falls went on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 37-31 with 3:34 on a Gavin Ralph three-pointer. Devon Fielding's three-point field goal gave UWL a 40-31 lead and after the Falcons' Micah Thompson converted a layup to make it 40-33, Grieger and Derousseau connected on three-pointers to give the Eagles a 46-33 advantage. JJ Paider's layup with :58 remaining extended the lead to 48-33 at halftime.

UWL took a 55-41 lead with 17:03 left in a Paider layup when UW-River Falls used another 7-0 run to cut it to 55-48 with 15:01 remaining on a Thompson three-point play. Havlik's layup with 13:34 left cut it to 57-52, but the Falcons could get no closer the rest of the game. Grieger's three-point play and Felding's three-pointer gave UWL a 63-52 lead with 12:03 remaining.

UW-River Falls later cut it to 67-60, but an 8-0 run by UWL made it 75-60 with 6:05 left. The Falcons would get no closer than nine points the rest of the way.

UWL shot 50.0% from the field Saturday, including 40.9% (nine-of-22) from three-point range, and 65.0% (13-of-20) at the free throw line.

Grieger led the Eagles with 34 points and five assists while going eight-of-eight at the free throw line. Derousseau finished with 22 points, becoming the 18th player in school history to score 1,000 career points (1,001). Fielding added 10 points, four rebounds and four steals. 

UW-River Falls shot 42.6% from the field, including 22.2% (four-of-18) from three-point range, and 47.6% (10-of-21) at the line.

Thompson led four players in double figures with 15 points while adding a game-high 15 rebounds. Ralph finished with 14 points while Jack Leifker had 12 and Havlik 11. Ralph, Leifker and Havlik each had seven rebounds with Havlik having a game-high seven assists.

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



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