MENOMONIE - The fifth-seeded UW-Eau Claire women's basketball team saw its season ended by top-seeded UW-Stout in a 70-65 overtime loss to the Blue Devils in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals here tonight at Johnson Fieldhouse.

The Blugolds finish the season with a 16-11 record. The 16 wins is the lowest total since the 1990-91 season when Eau Claire went 15-10.

A back and forth second half saw Eau Claire take a 56-54 lead following two Rachel Becker (Jr.-Gilmanton) free throws with 4:05 left in regulation. Stout regained the lead with two consecutive jumpers before Jessica Dickey (Sr.-White Bear Lake, MN/Cretin-Derham Hall) tied the game up with a jumper of her own.

After Eau Claire and Stout exchanged free throws Becker put the Blugolds back up one with another free throw. The Blue Devils took a one point advantage on a Kelly Duoss jumper with 30 seconds left. Becker hit one of two free throws for Eau Claire with 15 seconds left to even the game at 61. Stout's Duoss had two free throw attempts with two seconds left in regulation but missed both sending the game to overtime.

The Blugolds never led in overtime as Stout took the early lead with a three-pointer just 11 seconds into the extra period. Eau Claire would close to within 66-65 on two Dickey free throws but Stout scored the last four points to seal the win.

Dickey, Emilee Planert (Sr.-Eau Claire/North) and Katie Murphy (Sr.-La Crosse/Aquinas) shared Eau Claire scoring honors in their last game as Blugolds with 11 each. Liz Van Drasek (Jr.-Albertville, MN/St. Michael-Albertville) added 10 points off the bench. Duoss led Stout with 21 while Lindsey Erichsen added 20.

Neither team shot well with the Blugolds hitting only 29.5 percent of their shots with the Blue Devils hitting 33.3 percent. The big difference came at the charity stripe as Stout hit 26 of 42 free throw attempts while Eau Claire hit 15 of 20 attempts.

Stout controlled the first 10 minutes of the game jumping out to leads of 10-3 and 13-5. The Blugolds countered scoring the next 12 points to grab a 17-13 lead with 9:21 left in the opening half.

Eau Claire had its lead cut to four before going on a 9-1 run to take a game-high 12 point lead. But the Blue Devils came right back scoring the final eight points of the half to send the Blugolds into halftime with a 30-26 lead.

Murphy ends her collegiate career first all-time in career three-pointers made at Eau Claire with 151. Murphy also finishes fifth all-time in steals with 253, fifth in assists with 338 and is tied for third with 111 games played.

Stout advances to play third-seeded UW-Oshkosh in the finals of the WIAC Tournament. The Titans upset second-seeded UW-Stevens Point 74-67 to advance.

Eau Claire-Stout Box Score

- JL -