The UW-Eau Claire men’s basketball program entered the 2024-25 season with a new look and arena to play in. On April 4, Zach Malvik was named the 11th head coach in program history. 

At Winona State from 2003-2007, Malvik was a DII National Champion in 2006 and an All-American in 2007.

After having assistant coaching roles at  Saint Mary’s University and Winona State, Malvik became an assistant coach at UW-Green Bay in 2023. 

Alongside the addition of Malvik, the program got to play in the 104,900 square-foot Sonnentag event center for the first time on Saturday, Nov 9 against #14 ranked Nebraska Wesleyan University.

Nebraska Wesleyan got off to a 12-4 start off of a Carter Glenn layup and free-throw for the three-point play. The Blugolds went 1-7 from the field in that stretch.

With 6:32 left in the first half, the Blugolds were able to diminish the Nebraska Wesleyan lead to just two points off a tip-in from fourth-year forward Carter Huschka to bring the score to 20-18. A three-pointer from fourth-year guard Michael Casper gave the Blugolds the lead at 27-26 with 4:03 left in the half.

The Blugolds held on to the lead for the remainder of the half and went into halftime with a 34-27 lead. Despite the seven-point lead, the Blugolds shot just 36.67 percent from the field.

A three-pointer off the hands of Casper lengthened the Blugolds’ lead to six with 14:39 left in the game after Nebraska Wesleyan cut the margin down to three. Casper finished as the game’s leading scorer with 25 points, including seven three-pointers.

With 6:13 left on the clock, Huschka’s free throw gave the Blugolds a 12-point lead. The lead was too much for Nebraska Wesleyan to come back and in the first game of the Malvik and Sonnentag era the Blugolds were victorious. They won 68-64, topping a ranked opponent.

Alongside Casper’s 25-point performance, incoming third-year guard St. Cloud transfer Andre Renta shot 6-6 from the free throw line and had four steals in a 17-point performance. 

Following a season-opening win, the Blugolds looked to stay on their winning trend, facing Gustavus Adolphus College on Sunday, Nov 10.

Against Nebraska Wesleyan, the Blugolds faced a zone defense and had to run their zone offense. Heading into Sunday, they were able to run their normal offense and incorporate the pick and roll.

“All week we were drilling hard [on] our hard hedge, hit the roll, quick rolls,” Renta said.

The Blugolds got off to a quick start, taking a 19-12 lead nearly 10 minutes into the half off of a Renta layup. Deep into the first half, the Blugolds lengthened their lead to 11 off of a three-point shot from fourth-year guard Drew Maloney. 

Maloney, who had just 2 shot attempts in 21 minutes, was used as a flash guy in the paint against Nebraska Wesleyan and didn’t have many offensive opportunities. Maloney said this about his involvement in the game Saturday that led to him scoring 17 points with four three-pointer makes.

“[It was] nice tonight to get out on the perimeter and get my shot going, get the ball in my hands a little bit more,” Maloney said. “Shot felt good tonight.”

The Blugolds held Gustavus Adolphus under 30 points at the half and led 35-28. Both teams had success beyond the arc with Adolphus shooting 50 percent on 10 attempts and the Blugolds 55.56 percent on nine attempts.

After increasing their lead to 13 points early in the first half, the Blugolds lost the comfortable lead with a little under 10 minutes left in the game following a free-throw made by Adolphus’s Evan Wieker, shortening the Blugolds’ lead to 52-51.

Adolphus’s presence in the paint would cause them to take the lead 66-63 off of a Wyatt Olson layup. Adolphus’s lead grew to five with 2:35 remaining in the game, just for the Blugolds to take the lead courtesy of a fourth-year guard Cade Hall three with 1:22 on the clock. 

After Adolphus’s Wieker went 1-2 at the free throw line and missed a layup at the buzzer, the game went into overtime. 

After coming back down five late in the second half, the Blugolds weren’t able to hold on in overtime. Down 81-79 with 1:21 left, Renta fouled out, ending his day as the Blugolds leading scorer with 19 points.

The Blugolds missed three free throws in the last minute and weren’t able to stop Adolphus, who earned eight points off free throws. Adolphus went on to win 86-80 with Olson scoring a team-high 21 points and shooting a team 58.62 percent from the field in the second half.

Malvik discussed the errors that came from his team in their loss.

“I thought our guys played hard, but we’re very undisciplined. We didn’t stick to our scout, we didn’t stick to knowing their personnel,” Malvik said. “That’s too good of a basketball team to not play the right way and stay disciplined.”

Adolphus benefited from the Blugolds’ mistakes with 14 points off of turnovers and also claimed 13 second-chance points. The outlier in Adolphus’s win was their paint presence, which led to 42 points in the paint.

Adolphus was able to do so by setting up their big men at the top of the key with the ball and clearing the court, giving them a lane to back down Blugold defenders. Maloney said the team discussed what they need to do heading forward to improve and close games out.

“Physicality, for sure. We can’t get backed down like that,” Maloney said. “We just gotta be more disciplined. I think we played hard, but we just made silly mistakes and the little things kind of costed us tonight.”

A theme early on in the season is the contrast in halves for the Blugolds. They had the lead heading into halftime of both games over the weekend but were outscored by seven points in the second half of both games.

Renta said this about what this loss means moving forward.

“It definitely lights a fire. Just teaches us we got to execute [and] lean into our scout,” Renta said.

The Blugolds will look to bounce back in the victory column as they travel to take on the Marietta Shine Tournament on Nov 15-16 in Marietta, Ohio.

Benes can be reached at [email protected].