UW-Eau Claire 74, UW-Stout 52
EAU CLAIRE (February 12, 2021) - UW-Stout held a very early lead, but UW-Eau Claire captured the lead and never gave it up as the Blue Devils dropped a 74-52 decision at McPhee Center Friday.
The Blue Devils (1-3, 1-3 WIAC) used the 3-ball to their advantage early with
Armani Tinsley draining two bombs and
Luke Geiger one to give Stout an early four point lead. Two buckets by the Blugolds (2-2, 2-2 WIAC) tied the score at 9-9 and when Eau Claire scored a minute later to make it 11-9, they held onto the lead the rest of the night.
Eau Claire built a 10-point, 38-28, hafltime lead, then raced to a 49-28 lead in the first four minutes after the break. Stout cut the lead to 11 points, going on a 10-0 run on baskets by
Brody Fox,
TYreese Alexander,
Josh Mericle and
Marcus Hill and a two free throws by
Kyle Jackson, at 11:33 of the second half. Eau Claire broke the run on a bucket by David Ijadimbola. Fox hit a 3-pointer to make it a 10 points, 51-41, spread but that would be as close as Stout would get.
The Blue Devils were held to 28.3 percent shooting from the floor (17-60), 35 percent from long range (7-20) and 64.7 percent from the line (11-17). Tinsley led Stout with 11 points and Geiger had 10.
Cam Kuepers led Eau Claire with 23 points. Ijadimbola finished with 12 points. Eau Claire shot 55.6 percent from the floor (25-45), 43.8 percent from 3-point range (7-16) and 85 percent (17-20) from the line. Eau Claire held a 30-28 advantage off the glass.
Stout will host UW-La Crosse, Wednesday, Feb. 17, then will be at UW-La Crosse, Friday, Feb. 19.
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