LA CROSSE - The UW-Eau Claire women's basketball team suffered its first conference defeat and had its five-game winning streak halted today with a 68-51 loss to UW-La Crosse.

The Blugolds are now 1-1 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) and 5-2 overall. The Eagles are undefeated in WIAC play at 2-0 while holding a 4-2 overall mark.

The game was back-and-forth in the beginning with the lead changing hands several times. La Crosse started to pull away and was up 19-12 with 8:48 to play in the half. Following a timeout, the Blugolds then went on an 8-0 run to pull ahead 20-19 after an Ashley Anderson (So.-Oakdale, MN/North St. Paul) layup. The two teams battled out the half with La Crosse slightly ahead 33-28 going into intermission.

The bench provided 12 points for Eau Claire compared to six for La Crosse. The points in the paint went in Eau Claire's favor 14-to-8, as did second chance points by a 9-to-2 margin.

The Blugolds shot 36.4% the first half while going 1-for-8 on threes. La Crosse had a field goal percentage of 40.0% while going 2-for-8 from long range. The Eagles also racked up 11 points from the line, going 11-of-13.

By 14:28 in the second half La Crosse had doubled the deficit by making it a 40-30 score. The lead fluctuated between seven and 13 points for the next several minutes until Eau Claire pulled to within six at 9:33 on a Heidi Arciszewski (So.-Thorp) layup that made the game 48-42. La Crosse then went on a 6-0 run to pull ahead by 12 again. Eau Claire scored nine points the rest of the way compared to 14 for La Crosse.

The leading Blugold scorer was Amanda Zenner (Jr.-Medford) with 11. She also pulled down 11 boards to lead Eau Claire.

The Blugolds shot 30.4% on the game. They went 2-for-15 or 13.3% on three-pointers. They did win the rebound battle by 10, but only made seven free throws compared to 22 for the Eagles. Eau Claire only had nine attempts from the line whereas La Crosse had 28.

Eau Claire had 17 second chance points and 19 bench points. La Crosse had totals of six and 13, respectively. The Blugolds won the battle in the paint with 26 points to La Crosse's 24.

The Eagles shot 48.9% for the game and went 2-for-9 on threes, good for 22.2%. Their leading scorer was Ashley Wagner who tied a career-best with 17. Katy Searing grabbed 10 rebounds for the Eagles.

Eau Claire is now 35-16 against La Crosse all-time.

The next game for the Blugolds will be at home when they face UW-River Falls Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. in Zorn Arena.

Eau Claire-La Crosse Box Score

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