EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) – Playing in its first home game of the season, the UW-Eau Claire men's basketball team stuck with Loras College (Iowa) nearly the entire way but ended up falling 77-64 to the Duhawks on Ken Anderson Court in Zorn Arena tonight.

The Blugolds got off to a slow start and found themselves down by 11 points (14-3) just over four minutes into the game. Eau Claire then used a 14-5 run to close the gap to two points (19-17) with less than nine minutes to go in the opening half.

Eau Claire took its first lead of the game with just over two minutes to play in the half, and led by one point (31-30) with just under two minutes left. Loras closed the half on a 3-0 run to take a four-point lead (35-31) into halftime.

In the second half, the Blugolds hung with Loras for the first 13 minutes. The score was tied for the eighth time of the night (53-53) with just under eight minutes to play but Loras outscored the Blugolds 24-11 the rest of the way to win by 13.

Adam Hjelter (So.-Hutchinson, Minn.) led the game in scoring with a career-high 25 points while Kurtis Moody (So.-Pequot Lakes, Minn.) led the game in rebounding with 10.

As a team, the Blugolds shot 35.9 percent from the field (23-for-64) while Loras went 26-for-53 (49.1 percent). Loras was 16-for-19 from the free throw line (84.2 percent) and the Blugolds were 11-for-18 (61.1 percent).

Eau Claire drops to 3-2 on the season while Loras improves to 3-2.

The Blugolds will be back in action Saturday when they host Crown College (Minn.) on Saturday for a game beginning at 5 p.m. in Zorn.

-KM-