UW-L Completes Season Sweep of UW-Stout

For Immediate Release: Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009

Menomonie, Wis. - The UW-La Crosse men's basketball team completed a season sweep of UW-Stout with an 91-79 victory in Johnson Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon in Menomonie. The Eagles had defeated the Blue Devils, 83-69, Jan. 10 in La Crosse. UW-L improves to 10-14 overall and 4-11 in the WIAC with its win Saturday while UW-Stout falls to 7-15 overall and 1-12 in the conference.

The Blue Devils took a 2-0 lead on the first basket of the game from Jerrod Buchholtz, but Andy Merklein gave the Eagles a 5-2 lead on a three-point field goal with 17:47 remaining in the first half and UW-L never trailed again. The Eagles led 12-9 with 15:50 left in the first half when they went on a 10-2 run to lead 22-11. UW-L led by as many as 17 points in the first half at 33-16 after a Kurt Kincaid three-pointer. UW-Stout later cut the lead to 49-40, but trailed 53-40 at intermission.

UW-L led 66-45 with 13:26 left in the game, opening the second half on a 13-5 run. UW-Stout cut the deficit to 78-69 with 5:02 left after a pair of Mahlon Thomas free throws and trailed 78-72 with 2:49 remaining on a Thomas layup. After a UW-L timeout, Kincaid hit his sixth three-pointer of the game to give the Eagles a 81-72 lead with 2:17 left and the team went 10-for-10 at the free throw line in the final 1:13.

Kincaid led five players in double figures for UW-L with a career-high 22 points. He finished six-of-eight from the field, including six-of-seven from three-point range, and four-of-four at the line. He also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Al Chery and Trevor Stratton each scored 15 points while Merklein finished with 14 and Tony Mane 11. Merklein added eight rebounds and four assists while Stratton and Mane each had four assists.

UW-L shot 50.8% from the field, including 58.8% (20-of-34) in the first half. The team was 12-of-27 (44.4%) from three-point range in the game and 17-of-18 (94.4%) at the free throw line.

Eric Hostetter led UW-Stout with 21 points while Buchholtz finished with 15. Jerrell Enerson-Matthews had 13 points and Thomas recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. The Blue Devils shot 41.1% from the field, including 25.9% (seven-of-27) from three-point range. The team was 12-of-17 (70.6%) at the line.

UW-L wraps up its regular season Wednesday, Feb. 18 hosting third-ranked UW-Stevens Point at 7 p.m.