UW-L Falls at UW-River Falls for Third Straight Loss

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2009

River Falls, Wis. – The UW-La Crosse men's basketball team dropped its third straight contest with an 62-61 loss at UW-River Falls Wednesday night. The Eagles fall to 8-9 overall and 2-6 in the WIAC while the Falcons improve to 9-8 overall and 3-5 in the conference.

The game was tied six times in the first half, including 16-16 with 11:38 remaining on the Eagles' Derek Wilcox layup. UW-L led 20-19 with 9:16 left when it went on a 10-0 run to lead 30-19 with 2:43 remaining. UW-River Falls came back to cut its halftime deficit to 32-27.

UW-L scored the first seven points of the second half to lead 39-27 with 16:38 left, but UW-River Falls scored the next 10 points to cut the lead to two. The Eagles came back and went on a 9-2 run to lead 48-39 with 11:34 remaining. UW-L led until the 4:14 mark when UW-River Falls' Jontae Koonkaew hit a pair of free throws to give the Falcons a 55-54 lead. Spencer Shelman hit a three-pointer to make it 58-54 and Jake Voeltz later converted a pair of layups to give UW-River Falls a 62-56 lead with :49 remaining. UW-L's Tony Mane hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to 62-59 with :36 left and after Shelman missed the front end of a one-and-one, Al Chery scored on a jumper to cut the deficit to 62-61 with :17 remaining.

Aaron Anderson missed a free throw with :13 left for UW-River Falls and after each team took a timeout, Mane missed a potential game-winning jumper with :02 remaining.

Mane led UW-L with 25 points, finishing nine-of-14 from the field, including five-of-seven from three-point range. He was two-of-two at the free throw line. Andy Merklein finished with seven points and six rebounds while Trevor Stratton and Kurt Kincaid each had six points. Kincaid also had a team-high 10 rebounds.

UW-L shot 41.8% from the field, including 46.7% (seven-of-15) from three-point range. The Eagles were eight-of-12 (66.7%) at the line.

Koonkaew and Wade Guerin led UW-River Falls with nine points while Voeltz finished with eight. Guerin also grabbed 10 rebounds. The Falcons shot 41.4% from the field, including 41.2% (seven-of-17) from three-point range. The team was seven-of-10 (70.0%) at the line.

UW-L returns to action Saturday, Jan. 24 hosting UW-Eau Claire at 3 p.m.