Sports & Wellness
Justin Nichols Sports Editor sports@theracquet.net
Page 4
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Men’s basketball clinches first conference title since 1965
Steven Point’s McGann answered with a 3 of his own to keep it a two-point game. McGann then hit a couple of free throws to tie the game at 51 with just under two minutes remaining. A Yurk 3-point play gave La Crosse a 3 point lead that they would not relinquish as the Eagles forced a turnover with 4.3 seconds left. After a Yurk free throw that made it a 55-53 lead for the Eagles, the Pointers final heave was off the mark giving UWL it’s first conference title since 1965.
By Alex VandenHouten Staff Reporter
La Crosse held on for a 55-53 win on senior night verses the Pointers of Stevens Point at Mitchell Hall this past Saturday Night in front of a crowd of 1634. The win combined with a UW-River Falls loss to Oshkosh, gave the Eagles their first conference title since 1965. The Eagles started a little slow spotting the pointers a quick 6-0 lead. But the Eagles responded with a 15-2 run that was capped off by a Kenny Finco 3 pointer to give UWL a 15-8 lead. La Crosse played smothering defense in the first half that led to easy buckets in transition that fueled a 15-3 run. A Ben Meinholz steal and two handed slam made it a 34-20 game and on the next offensive possession a Ryan Kruser gave UWL it’s
After a Yurk free throw that made it a 55-53 lead for the Eagles, the Pointers final heave was off the mark giving UW-L its first conference title since 1965... The Eagles will host a semifinal game on Friday, February 26th.
La Crosse played smothering defense in the first half that led to easy buckets in transition that fueled a 15-3 run. largest lead of the game at 37-20. A Stevens Point putback beat the buzzer to make it a 37-22 halftime lead for the home team. La Crosse shot 47% (15-32) from the field while holding the Pointers to just 32% (9-28) in the first half. The second half however was a different story as UWL only shot 20.8%(5-24) from
uwlax.edu
The 2015-2016 UW-L basketball team
the field while Stevens Point started nailing the 3 pointers that weren’t falling in the first half. Led by a pair of threes from both Ethan Bublitz and Stephen Pelkofer cut the lead to 7 to make it 47-40 UWL with just over
8 minutes left. Stevens Point hot shooting continued as a pair of Sean McGann free throws capped off a 9-1 run to make it a twopoint game at 48-46. Devin Yurk’s first basket of the game, a 3-pointer, ended the run, but
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The Eagles were forced to rely on others on a night were leading scorers Devin Yurk and Jared Staege were held in check each finished with 7 and 8 points. Freshman Ben Meinholz stepped up with 16 points while also chipping in 6 rebounds as well. Stephen Pelkofer who had a game high of 18 points and Ethan Bublitz contributed 14 for the Pointers who fell to 14-11 and 7-7 in WIAC play. For the game the Eagles shot 35.7% (20-56) and were just 31.6% (6-19) from 3. The Eagles will receive a bye for the WIAC Championship and host a semifinal game on Friday, February 26.
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