Eau Claire, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team fell 88-69 to UW-Eau Claire Saturday night in Zorn Arena.  The Eagles drop to 12-11 overall and 4-8 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Blugolds improve to 17-6 overall and 7-5 in the conference.

UWL led 8-7 with 15:58 remaining in the first after a Ben Meinholz jumper, but UW-Eau Claire used a 10-0 run to lead 17-8 on a pair of Jared Schneidermann free throws.  Sam Skoyen's jumper cut the deficit to 17-10, but an 11-4 run gave the Blugolds a 28-14 advantage with 8:31 remaining. 

The Eagles trailed by as many as 20 points in the first half, including 40-20 with 5:22 left.  UWL used a 16-5 run to end the half, cutting the lead to 45-36 on Terek Nesheim's three-point field goal with :09 remaining.  The Eagles shot 60.7% (17-of-28) from the field in the first half while the Blugolds shot 63.0% (17-of-27).

Trailing 48-41 with 18:01 left in the second half, UWL used a 10-5 run to cut the lead to 53-51 with 14:02 remaining on a Meinholz three-point field goal. UW-Eau Claire went on an 12-1 run to take a 65-52 advantage with 8:55 remaining and UWL could get no closer than 11 points the rest of the game. 

UWL shot 49.2% from the field, including 38.5% (five-of-13) from three-point range, and 54.5% (six-of-11) at the free throw line. Meinholz led the Eagles with 16 points while Austin Fritz finished with 11 points and seven rebounds.  Kenny Finco and Nesheim each had seven points.

UW-Eau Claire, receiving votes on this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll, shot 60.4%, including 61.1% (11-of-18) from three-point range, and 68.4% (13-of-19) at the line. The Blugolds were seven-of-10 (70.0%) from three-point range in the second half.  Chris Duff led UW-Eau Claire with 21 points, hitting five three-point field goals. Schneidermann finished with 18 points while George Diekelman totaled 14 and Josh Weix 13.

UWL returns to action Wednesday, February 15 hosting UW-Stout at 7 p.m. in its regular-season home finale.