UW-L Holds Off Ripon in Home Opener

For Immediate Release: Saturday, November 24, 2007

La Crosse, Wis. – The UW-La Crosse men's basketball team opened its 2007-08 home schedule with a 70-69 victory over Ripon College (Wis.) Saturday night in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles improve to 3-0 on the season while the Red Hawks drop to 1-1.

The Eagles raced out to a 7-0 lead to start the game before the Red Hawks later came back to force a 11-11 tie with 14:30 remaining. Ripon later took a 26-18 lead in the first half with 5:34 left before UW-L finished on a 22-4 run to lead 40-30 at intermission.

Ripon trailed by 12 early in the second half before it went on a 15-4 run to take a 45-44 lead with 15:31 remaining. The Red Hawks led 48-47 before the Eagles went on a 10-2 run to lead 57-50 with 11:52 left. Scott Gillespie hit three free throws for Ripon to make it 57-55 with just under 10 minutes left, but Nick Frederick scored three points in a 5-0 run to lead 62-55 with 7:56 remaining.

The Red Hawks cut the margin to 65-62 with 5:58 left, but could only get to 70-69 with :01 left on Tyler Fischer's three-pointer.

Billy Kegler led UW-L with 17 points, including 15 in the first half. He also tied for the team lead with seven rebounds joining Brandon Brown. Brown finished with nine points, three assists and three steals. Chris Fehrenbach added 14 points, four rebounds and four assists while TJ Nereng totaled 12 points, four rebounds and three assists.

UW-L shot 38.7% from the field, including 22.7% (five-of-22) from three-point range. The Eagles were 17-of-26 (65.4%) at the line, but only five-of-12 (41.7%) in the second half.

Martin Esters led Ripon with 16 points while Gillespie and Chris Kellett each added 15 points while Fischer finished with 10. Ripon shot 44.8% from the field, including 26.7% (four-of-15) from three-point range. The team was 13-of-22 (59.1%) at the line.

UW-L returns to action Wednesday, November 28 at Augustana College (Ill.) at 7:30 p.m.