EAU CLAIRE - The UW-Eau Claire men's basketball team returned to the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference wars Tuesday night at W. L. Zorn Arena and took an 81-61 licking from defending champion UW-Whitewater.

The Blugolds stayed with the Warhawks for the first 10 minutes of the contest before the visitors turned up the pressure, scoring 42 points in the paint.

Whitewater held a 17-9 edge in points off turnovers and a 19-10 advantage in second chance points. The Warhawks had 12 of their 30 rebounds on the offensive end and committed just seven miscues compared to 12 turnovers by the Blugolds.

By going inside, Whitewater also managed to get to the free throw line 17 more times than the Blugolds, converting on 18 of 23 charity tosses while the Blugolds made five of six.

Jason Price, a 6-foot junior guard, led all scorers with 20 points as he connected on 7 of 11 from the field including three of five beyond the arc. Six-eight senior Andy Freund came off the bench to score 12 as he was perfect in six attempts from the foul line.

Whitewater broke the game open with an 11-0 run at a point where the Warhawks were clinging to a slim 17-16 lead. A mini-run (7-0) by the Blugolds trimmed the deficit to four (31-27) but the Warhawks pushed the lead back to nine by intermission.

The Blugolds made the first basket of the second half but Whitewater immediately hit a trey and followed with a layup to keep the lead in double digits the remainder of the game. Whitewater had opened up a 61-39 lead by the 12:01 mark. The lead peaked at 23 (77-54) with 3:23 remaining.

Eau Claire's Jared Bardon (Jr.-DeForest) followed a career-high 30-point effort in last Saturday's Holiday Classic final with a 19-point effort on 8 of 15 shooting from the field. That pushed his team-high scoring average to 15.0. Dan Beyer (Jr.-Waukesha/Catholic Memorial) and Steve Hoelzel (Jr.-Kaukauna) contributed 14 apiece but only five other Blugolds scored and none of them tallied more than five.

The win was Whitewater's fifth consecutive over the Blugolds and evened its WIAC record at 2-2 and its overall mark at 7-4. The Blugolds slipped to 1-3 in the league and stand 7-5 on the season. The Blugolds will travel to UW-Oshkosh Saturday and return home Jan. 10 for a conference game against UW-Stevens Point. Whitewater begins a four-game home stand Saturday, taking on UW-River Falls.

Eau Claire-Whitewater Box Score

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