La Crosse 80, Yellowjackets 64
Box Score

On Saturday afternoon, the Yellowjacket women's basketball team was looking to follow up a convincing win over UW-Stout with their first conference on the road, when they traveled to UW-La Crosse.  The Eagles, however, had other plans.  The Yellowjackets held the lead early and stayed close in the first half, but it was all Eagles after the break and they went on to an 80-64 victory.

The Yellowjackets jumped out early, paced by Sally Linzmeier (Valders, Wis./Valders) who scored seven points in the first three minutes of play.  With the score deadlocked at 10-10, the Yellowjackets would take a two-point lead on three occasions and three times the Eagles came back to tie it.  Keely Deadrick (Esko, Minn./Esko) hit a layup with 8:30 to play in the first half, which tied the game 26-26.  From that point forward, however, it was all Eagles.  La Crosse went on a 10-0 run to pull away before Hailey Hart (Osseo, Wis./Osseo-Fairchild) hit a three-pointer to get the Yellowjackets back on the board.  The Eagles would stretch the lead to as many as 11 points on more than one occasion and went to the locker room up 44-33.

It was more of the same in the second half as the Eagles quickly bumped the lead up to 16.  With 11:12 to play, Hart hit a pair of free throws to pull the Yellowjackets to within nine at 61-52.  That, however, is as close as the Yellowjackets would get.  A 14-2 run vaulted the lead back into double figures, reaching a game-high 21 points at 75-54 with 4:54 to go.  The rest of the way the Yellowjackets would outscore La Crosse 10-5, led by four points from Linzmeier, as the game closed out at 80-64.

Linzmeier and Hart led the way, each putting up a double-double.  Linzmeier scored a team-leading 18 points and also pulled down 12 rebounds.  Hart scored 13 points and also had 13 rebounds.  Carly Chell (Apple Valley, Minn./Apple Valley) chipped in 13 points.  Hart also had a team-best four assists and Linzmeier led the team with four steals.

Kassie Robinson led La Crosse with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Milestone Watch: with her 13 point performance, Hailey Hart now has 870 points in her Yellowjacket career and remains in 12th place on the all-time scoring list.  She is now 12 points away from passing Lindsey Anderson and moving into 11th place.  Hart also jumped up a notch on the all-time rebound list.  Currently with 502 rebounds, Hart now sits ninth all-time.  Next up on the list in eighth place is Sherri Domitrovich, who had 556 rebounds over two seasons (1999-20001).

The Yellowjackets (4-4, 1-2 WIAC) will return to action next on Wednesday, December 14 when they travel to UW-Eau Claire.  Game time is 7:00 p.m.