A Saturday trip to La Crosse saw both the men’s and women’s basketball teams dropping tough -losses to its WIAC conference foe.
Women’s
Going into Saturday’s WIAC match against UW-La Crosse, the UW-Eau Claire women’s basketball team was riding momentum from a five game winning streak, including an upset to No. 5- ranked UW-Stout.
However, the Eagles managed to hold off the Blugolds and snap their winning streak with a 68-51 victory.
“Against UW-Stout, we followed our game plan,” junior Michelle Burns said. “We got away from that against La Crosse, they were hitting shots and we weren’t .”
The Blugolds were looking for more than a win against La Crosse.
“We wanted to distinguish ourselves as a team that’s going to play well on the road as well as at home,” Burns said. “We need that in order to be the great team we want to be.”
The first half saw the lead change five times, with La Crosse pulling ahead by seven points at the 8:48 mark. Eau Claire battled back and took the lead 20-19 at the 5:14 mark after an 8-0 run, but could not hold it as the half closed with the Eagles ahead 33-28.
La Crosse extended its lead to 10 points with 14:28 to go in the second half. The ‘Golds pulled within six points, but the Eagles managed to double the lead and run away with the victory.
Burns said the Blugolds will put the loss behind them heading into Wednesday’s game against UW-River Falls.
“We want to get back on the right path,” she said. “We didn’t get a lot of second chance shots or early offensive rebounds, and that’s what hurt the most.”
Junior Amanda Zenner led the Blugolds with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Heidi Arciszewski added eight points and six rebounds.
The Blugolds dominated on the boards 44-34, but only shot30.4 percent compared to the Eagles’ 48.9 percent. The ‘Golds also added 19 bench points for the game.
Eau Claire will look to regain some ground in conference play when it takes on UW-River Falls Wednesday night at 8 p.m. in Zorn Arena.
Men’s
After a strong start to Saturday’s game against WIAC conference rivals La Crosse, the Eau Claire men’s basketball team saw the game fall into the laps of the Eagles.
The Blugolds grabbed a quick 8-2 lead to begin the game, but saw it diminish as La Crosse went on a 17-3 run that ended at the 6:48 mark.
Eau Claire eventually lost the game 60-44 to fall to 0-2 in conference play to start the season.
After the abrupt change of momentum, junior Zack Ryan said the Blugolds just let the game slip away.
“We got off to a good start, but we stopped executing and playing defense,” Ryan said.
Even though Eau Claire managed to cut the La Crosse lead down to six twice in the first half, the Eagles took a 29-18 lead into halftime and came out firing in the second half by going on a 12-3 run and building the lead to 23 points. The Blugolds managed to come within 14 points of the Eagles, but couldn’t get any closer.
Although the ‘Golds out-rebounded the Eagles 34-32, La Crosse forced 18 Blugold turnovers in the win. Eau Claire also shot 31percent from the field while La Crosse shot 46 percent.
Junior Jared Bardon led Eau Claire with 11 points, five rebounds and three assists. Bardon also added two steals in the losing effort while Ryan finished the contest with seven points.
“We didn’t play a full game, and we haven’t done it all year,” Ryan said. “We have to start scoring more, and that starts with picking it up on defense.”
Despite dropping to 0-2 in conference play, Ryan said the team is optimistic about the remaining games on its schedule.
“Starting 2-3 . we’re obviously not happy with that,” he said. “We have to come out with a lot more fire, get rolling and get some victories.”
The Blugolds will play 17 of their last 20 games at home; an advantage Ryan said should benefit the team greatly.
“We haven’t played a game on our home court yet so it’ll be nice to get back to familiar territory,” he said.
Eau Claire will play its first home game of the 2006-07 season against River Falls on Wednesday. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m.
