La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team extended its winning streak to six with an 86-78 victory over UW-Stout Wednesday night in Mitchell Hall.
The Eagles, ranked 19th on this week's D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll and in the NCAA Power Index (NPI), improve to 17-5 overall and 7-4 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC). The Blue Devils drop to 8-14 overall and 4-7 in the conference.
It is UWL's 16th win in the last 19 meetings with UW-Stout after a 72-50 victory in Menomonie on January 21.
Sam Grieger totaled 23 points, five rebounds and four assists.
UWL moved into a first-place tie in the WIAC with its victory Wednesday night combined with UW-Stevens Point's 70-69 loss at UW-River Falls, UW-Oshkosh's 84-75 home win over UW-Eau Claire and UW-Whitewater's 66-51 home victory over UW-Platteville.
UWL, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Whitewater are all 7-4 with three games remaining in the regular season.
The Eagles raced out to a 12-3 lead on Wednesday, including scoring the first seven points of the game. The Blue Devils cut the deficit to 16-9 with 13:35 left on an AJ Uttech layup, but four points from
Sam Grieger and two from
JJ Paider extended UWL's lead to 22-9 with 10:02 remaining.
UW-Stout used a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 22-16 after a pair of Aidan Shore dunks. UWL later led 41-29 with 2:57 left in the first half on Paider's layup when UW-Stout ended the half on a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 41-36.
Grieger's layup gave UWL a 45-38 advantage but Collin Vick's layup and Wesley Mboga's three-pointer cut the lead to 45-43.
Dustin Derousseau's layup with 15:13 left provided a 53-47 lead for UWL when UW-Stout went on a 8-0 run to take its first lead of the game at 55-53 with 13:00 remaining on Gavin Johnson's jumper.
Derousseau scored the game's next nine points to give UWL a 62-55 lead, including going five-of-five at the free throw line. The Blue Devils later cut the lead to 69-66 with 6:14 remaining, but could get no closer the rest of the game.
Ben Goedheer's three-point play with 6:06 left made it 72-66 followed by two
Jack Crowley free throws and Derousseau's three-point field goal extended the lead to 77-66. UW-Stout got no closer than seven in the final 5:00 of the game.
UWL shot 53.8% from the field, including 38.5% (five-of-13) from three-point range, and 83.3% (25-of-30) at the free throw line.
JJ Paider finished with 12 points, eight rebounds
and three assists.
Derousseau led the Eagles with a career-high 34 points, going 14-of-16 at the line. He added five assists and four rebounds. Grieger totaled 23 points with five rebounds, four assists and two steals while Paider finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Goedheer added seven points off the bench.
UW-Stout shot 42.9% from the field, including 39.3% (11-of-28) from three-point range, and 43.8% (seven-of-16) at the line.
Mboga led the Blue Devils with 22 points while Domanyck Schwarzenberger finished with 16 points and four assists. Uttech had 15 points, six rebounds and four assists off the bench. Vick finished with eight points and game-high 12 rebounds.
UWL returns to action Saturday, February 14 at 18th-ranked UW-Stevens Point at 5 p.m.
