MENOMONIE, Wis. (November 28, 2012) - Chris Hortman (Sr, Milwaukee) is really embracing his role as UW-Stout's sixth man.

Entering the game as Stout's (6-0) leading scorer, Hortman again scored a game-high 19 points as the Blue Devils defeated Luther College, 64-45, Wednesday night at Johnson Fieldhouse.

Hortman led a crew of reserves who scored 32 points off the bench, including 10 by Keith Rash (Jr, Milwaukee). Meanwhile, Stout allowed Luther (3-2) to score just 11 bench points, holding them to 34 percent from the field, 19 percent from beyond the arc.

The Norse jumped out to an early lead but Stout got rid of that deficit quickly, going on a 9-0 run to take an 11-5 lead six minutes into the game. Their lead remained stagnant for much of the low-scoring first half, but five points by Hortman combined with a Tim Butina (Jr, Woodbury) layup quickly stretched that lead to 10. A three pointer by Rash at the buzzer gave Stout an 11-point lead, their largest of the half.

Aaron Jenny (Spicer, Minn.) opened the second half with five points on back-to-back possessions to stretch the lead to 14, and Hortman hit a jumper to give the Blue Devils a 40-24 lead, which would turn out to be their largest lead until the waning second of the contest.

Stout's lead never dipped below 12 the rest of the way and late in the game they employed the 'shoot and get offensive rebound' method to milk nearly two minutes off the clock without Luther touching the ball.

Alex Oman (Jr, Lake Elmo, Minn.) finished with 11 points, two blocks and two steals while big man Josh Kosloske (Jr, Oakfield) led all players with eight rebounds.

Stout remains home this weekend to open conference play against UW-Whitewater, Saturday, Dec. 1 at 4 p.m.