La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team fell 71-64 to second-ranked UW-Whitewater Saturday afternoon in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles drop to 7-9 overall and 2-5 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Warhawks improve to 14-2 overall and 7-0 in the conference. It is UW-Whitewater's eighth win in the last nine meetings with UW-L. 

The game was tied 10-10 with 11:55 remaining in the first half after UW-L's Trent Schmidt's layup.  UW-Whitewater scored the next seven points to lead 17-10, but UW-L went on a 12-2 run to take a 22-19 advantage with 5:42 left on a Ryan Kruser three-point field goal.  The contest was tied 19-19 when the Eagles used a 11-2 run to take their largest lead of the game at 30-21 with 3:15 remaining in the half.  The Warhawks cut the lead to 34-30 at halftime. 

UW-L led 40-32 with 18:48 remaining in the game after a Jared Staege three-pointer, but UW-Whitewater went on a 14-1 run to lead 46-41 with 14:14 left on a KJ Evans three-point play.  The Eagles' Johnny Coenen later cut the lead to 48-46 on a three-point field goal with 13:13 remaining, but the Warhawks used on a 9-0 run to take their largest lead at 57-46 with 7:45 left. 

The Eagles trailed 63-54 with 4:36 remaining, but scored eight straight points to cut their deficit to 63-62 with 2:37 left. After a missed Evans jumper, UW-L had a chance to take the lead, but missed a three-pointer.  Evans gave UW-Whitewater a 65-62 advantage on a layup with 1:13 remaining and after a UW-L turnover, Quardell Young scored on a layup with :52 left to make it 67-62.  Clint Rihn's jumper cut it to 67-64 with :42 remaining, but Evans went four-of-four at the free throw line in the final :32. 

UW-L shot 38.6% from the field, including 30.8% (eight-of-26) from three-point range, and 75.0% (12-of-16) at the free throw line.  Skylar Cameron led four players in double figures for the Eagles with 19 points while Kruser totaled 11 points off the bench.  Cale Zuiker and Staege each finished with 10 points.  Zuiker had a team-high seven rebounds. 

UW-Whitewater shot 52.9% from the field, including 15.4% (two-of-13) from three-point range, and 75.0% (15-of-20) at the line. Young led the Warhawks with 28 points, five assists and three steals while finishing 12-of-12 from the field and four-of-five at the line.  His 12-of-12 shooting from the field is tied for second in single-game WIAC history for most field goals made without a miss.  Dan Beyer of UW-Eau Claire went 15-of-15 versus Grinnell College November 16, 2007.  Jon Julius of UW-Stevens Point and Tommy Eckles of UW-La Crosse both went 12-of-12 in a game.  Julius versus UW-Superior December 14, 1992 and Eckles against Marian University (Wis.) November 23, 1991 .

Evans finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds for UW-Whitewater Saturday. 

UW-L returns to action Wednesday, January 21 at UW-Oshkosh at 7 p.m.