UW-L Falls at Fourth-Ranked UW-Platteville

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009

Platteville, Wis. – The UW-La Crosse men’s basketball team fell 77-63 at fourth-ranked UW-Platteville Wednesday night at Bo Ryan Court in Platteville. The Eagles fall to 9-12 overall and 3-9 in the WIAC while the Pioneers improve to 19-2 overall and 11-1 in the conference. UW-Platteville is ranked fourth on this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll.

Andrew Haass scored the first basket of the game to give UW-L a 2-0 lead, but UW-Platteville scored the next 12 points to lead 12-2 with 14:35 remaining in the first half. The Eagles later cut the lead to 15-10 with 11:35 left after a Tony Mane jumper, but the Pioneers used a 13-4 run to lead 28-14 with 7:07 remaining. UW-Platteville led 41-20 at halftime.

UW-L could get no closer than the final margin of 14 points as UW-Platteville led by as many as 29 points in the second half.

Mane led UW-L with 20 points, finishing seven-of-17 from the field, including two-of-four from three-point range. He was four-of-six at the free throw line. Trevor Stratton added 10 points while Andy Merklein had nine.

UW-L shot 45.1% from the field, including 38.5% (five-of-13) from three-point range. The Eagles were 12-of-17 (70.6%) at the line.

Curt Hanson and Mike Shaw led UW-Platteville with 19 points each while Jeff Skemp finished with 17. The Pioneers shot 50.0% from the field, including 47.4% (nine-of-19) from three-point range, and 82.8% (24-of-29) at the free throw line.

UW-L returns to action Saturday, Feb. 7 hosting UW-Oshkosh at 3 p.m.