After suffering through four consecutive losses, the UW-Superior men's basketball team was due for a break out game.
And the Yellowjackets came through in fine fashion, sprinting out to an early lead in the first half before pulling away after halftime to post an impressive 75-53 win over the UW-Eau Claire Blugolds at Zorn Arena in Eau Claire Wednesday night.
In picking up the victory, the Yellowjackets had seven players score at least eight points and held the Blugolds to just 33.3 percent (20-of-60) shooting, giving UW-Superior some valuable momentum heading into their road game against Buena Vista on Saturday.
UW-Superior (3-6 overall, 1-3 WIAC) jumped out in the early going, getting six quick points from Bronson Byrne (Chanhassen, Minn./Chaska), a three-pointer by Jarrod Peterson (Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata) and a jumper by Johnquez Brooks (Las Vegas, Nev.) in the opening 4:27 to take a 13-8 lead at the first media timeout.
A Trent Davis (Apple Valley, Minn./St. Bernard's) three-pointer upped the Yellowjackets' margin to 16-10 before two short jumpers by UW-Eau Claire's Zac Womeldorf brought the Blugolds to within 21-18 with 10:08 remaining in the first half.
But UW-Superior went on a 13-2 run from 8:32 to 4:12, getting two three-pointers from Austin Cahill, five points from Aaron Corry (Lake Nebagamon, Wis.) and a basket from Byrne to lead 36-22.
The Yellowjackets went on to take a 40-30 behind another three by Cahill and a Brendan Bauer (Eleva, Wis./Gilmanton) free throw in the final 3:37 of the half.
UW-Superior's surge continued into the second half as four quick points from Byrne and a driving layup from Davis upped the margin to 46-30 at the 18:08 mark of the second half.
A jumper from UW-Eau Claire's Nick Craggs and four points by Jacob Kohner trimmed UW-Superior's lead to 48-36 with 14:41 remaining in regulation.
Another long three from Cahill stopped the Blugolds' run however and back-to-back long range jumpers from Brooks gave the Yellowjackets a commanding 64-42 edge with 8:57 showing on the clock.
UW-Eau Claire (4-6, 0-4) got no closer than 19 points the rest of the way.
Byrne led the Yellowjackets offensively, scoring a game-high 14 points. Bauer and Cahill each finished with 12 points while Peterson added 11 points for UW-Superior.
For the game, UW-Superior connected on 57.1 percent (28-of-49) of their shots from the field, 68.8 percent (11-of-16) from three point range, and racked up nine blocks.
UW-Eau Claire was paced by Dustin Kalien with nine points.
Game time against Buena Vista is scheduled for 4 p.m. The game can head locally on 91.3 FM KUWS with Matt Johnson on the call.