Sixth-Ranked UW-Whitewater Holds Off UW-L

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009

La Crosse, Wis. – The UW-La Crosse men’s basketball team fell 64-61 to sixth-ranked UW-Whitewater Wednesday night in Mitchell Hall. The Warhawks, ranked sixth on the D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, improve to 16-3 overall and 8-2 in the WIAC. The Eagles fall to 8-11 overall and 2-8 in the conference.

UW-Whitewater made nine of its first 12 field goals of the game and led by as many as 10 points in the first half, but missed 13 of their next 15 shots as the Eagles took a 36-30 halftime lead. UW-Whitewater led 23-17 with 10:49 left in the first half when UW-L went on a 19-7 run to lead at halftime.

The Eagles led by as many as 12 points in the second half at 42-30 with 18:40 remaining and later led 47-36 with 13:26 left and 52-46 with 9:45 remaining. The Warhawks forced a 54-54 tie with 6:02 left on Matt Goodwin's three-pointer. The Eagles took a two-point lead on Andy Merklein's layup with 3:59 left before Dustin Mitchell tied it at 56-56 with a pair of free throws at 3:41 remaining.

Tyson Kingsby hit his first field goal of the game, a three-pointer with 3:18 left, to give UW-Whitewater a 59-56 lead. Kori Vernon followed with a layup to make it 61-56 before UW-L's Tony Mane cut the deficit to 61-58 on a jumper with 1:31 remaining. Myles McKay hit a pair of free throws with :18 left to regain the Warhawks' five-point lead, but the Eagles' Nick Papendieck hit a three-pointer with :05 left to cut it to 63-61. Kingsby then hit one-of-two free throws with :04 remaining and UW-L's halfcourt shot at the buzzer was missed.

Mane led UW-L with 19 points off the bench, finishing seven-of-22 from the field, including two-of-six from three-point range. He made all three of his free throw attempts. Trevor Stratton had 15 points, going six-of-15 from the field, including one-of-five from beyond the arc. He was two-of-three at the line. UW-L shot 37.5% from the field, including 35.3% (six-of-17) from three-point range. The Eagles were seven-of-nine (77.8%) at the line.

Vernon led UW-Whitewater with 25 points while Dustin Mitchell finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. The Warhawks shot 40.7% from the field, including 27.8% (five-of-18) from three-point range. The team was 15-of-20 (75.0%) at the free throw line.

UW-L returns to action Saturday, Jan. 31 at UW-Superior starting at 3 p.m.