UW-Eau Claire 70, UW-Stout 61
MENOMONIE (February 6, 2019) - UW-Stout built up a lead late in the first half, carried that into halftime, but UW-Eau Claire went on a 14-2 run to open the second half and defeated the Blue Devils, 70-61, Wednesday on Dewey Mintz Court in Johnson Fieldhouse.
Eau Claire (13-9, 6-5 WIAC) opened the game building up as much as a nine-point lead before Stout (6-16, 0-11 WIAC) came roaring back.
Jon Ciriacks scored back-to-back buckets,
Garret Parks dropped in a jumper and Patrick D'Marcco sunk a jumper at 8:58 of the first to tied the game at 21. Two free throws by
Luke Geiger gave Stout their first lead since the opening moments of the game.
Braden Walbeck scored eight point before halftime to key Stout's surge and the Blue Devils led 38-32 at halftime.
After Eau Claire took a 46-40 lead, the Blue Devils tied the score at 46 with 10 minutes left on a Walbeck jumper and
Zach Dahl gave Stout a two point lead, which turned out to be Stout's last lead of the game at 9:16.
The Blue Devils would chip away at an 11 point Eau Claire lead, getting as close five points on a Patrick layup with just under a minute left. Eau Claire made all six of their final free throw attempts.
The Blugolds' Cole Rabedeaux led all scorers with 21 points. Ben Widdes tossed in 18 and Cam Kuepers added 16.
Stout was led by Ciriacks with 14 points. Walbeck finished with 12 and Dahl had 11.
Eau Claire shot 38.6 percent (22-57) from the floor, but did drain 11 of 31 3-pointers (35.5 percent). Stout shot 38.3 percent (23-60) and was 6 of 21 from 3-point range.
The Blue Devils will host UW-Whitewater, Saturday, Feb. 9 at 3 p.m. Saturday is also Alumni Day.
