La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team earned a 68-59 win at city-rival Viterbo University (Wis.) Monday night in the R.W. Beggs Senior Gymnasium.  The Eagles improve to 4-1 on the season while the V-Hawks fall to 5-3.  It is UW-L's 10th straight win over Viterbo and now lead the designated Alumni Cup games, 16-9.

Viterbo's David Shepard scored the first seven points of the game as he made all three of his field goal attempts.  UW-L got on the board with 17:22 left on a Braden Tice three-pointer. The V-Hawks led 9-3 when the Eagles scored five straight points as Luke Tweed hit a layup and Clint Rihn a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 9-8.

UW-L took its first lead of the game at 14-13 with 12:21 left in the first half as Rihn hit a three-point field goal.  The V-Hawks led 26-20 with 6:31 remaining when the Eagles went on an 8-0 run take a 28-26 lead as Rihn made his third three-pointer of the half.  He later made his fourth three-point field goal of the half to give UW-L a 31-29 lead with 3:18 remaining.  The game was tied 33-33 at halftime.

UW-L led by two points early in the second half before Viterbo took a 50-45 lead with 11:12 left after Izac Sheforgen hit a pair of free throws.  The Eagles came back to force a 50-50 tie with 10:21 remaining with Trent Schmidt converting a three-point play and Tweed tying the game with a layup.  The V-Hawks scored the next six points to lead 56-50 with 8:13 left and Viterbo later led 58-52 with 7:30 remaining.

The Eagles then went on a 13-0 run to lead 65-58 with :50 left.  Tice and Calahan Skogman each scored six points in the run.  Sheforgen hit one-of-two at the line with :44 remaining, but Viterbo could get no closer the rest of the game.  The V-Hawks missed five field goal attempts and had four turnovers in the final 6:36.

UW-L shot 56.4% from the field, including 60.0% (12-of-20) in the first half.  The Eagles shot 47.6% (10-of-21) from three-point range in the game, including 58.3% (seven-of-12) in the opening 20 minutes. UW-L shot 70.0% (14-of-20) at the free throw line overall.

Skogman led four players in double figures with 15 points while finishing with a team-high nine rebounds.  Tweed finished with 13 points while Tice and Rihn each had 12 points.  Tice was four-of-six from three-point range while Rihn finished four-of-four.

Viterbo shot 48.9% from the field, including 36.4% (four-of-11) from three-point range.  The V-Hawks shot 57.9% (11-of-19) at the line.

Matt Turba led the team with 14 points while Shepard finished with 11.  Cole Lewis had eight points and team-high six rebounds.

UW-L returns to action Wednesday, December 4 hosting UW-River Falls at 7 p.m. in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) opener for both teams.