EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - Although the UW-Eau Claire men's basketball team trailed only once in the second game of the 39th Annual UW-Eau Claire Holiday Classic, they found themselves in a tight-fought battle for a 79-78 victory over Marian College at W.L. Zorn Arena tonight.

In a game that featured six ties and two lead changes, the Blugolds were able to maintain a lead until just under 14 minutes were left in the game. In the first period, Eau Claire found itself down only once at the beginning of the game and was able to capture a 14 point lead with just over six minutes remaining. By the end of the period, however, the Sabres were able to cut the lead to seven, going into halftime with a score of 27-20.

The second half opened with the Blugolds scoring three more points to increase their lead to 10, but the Sabres began to cut into that lead the rest of the half. With 13:43 remaining in the second period, Marian's Justin Bestor drained a three-pointer for the games first tie. After that, Eau Claire was able to increase its lead to six two more times, but the Sabres would not release their grip and tied the game five more times. With about 13 seconds left in the second period, Wayne Franklin scored on a layup to tie the game at 63 to force overtime.

Again, the Blugolds were able to push their lead to six at one point during the overtime, but Marian turned up the heat and stayed right on Eau Claire's heals. Marian was able to stick with the Blugolds by going 3-for-5 from beyond the arc in the overtime, but 9-for-12 shooting from the line and 3-for-3 shooting from the field proved to give the Blugolds the edge in the end.

The Blugolds were led by Geoff Probst's (So.-Moose Lake, Minn.) career high 28 points. Ryan Shea (Fr.-Duluth, Minn./East) also contributed 20, including the Blugolds' final three points of the game, while Colin Boone (So.-Eau Claire, Wis./Memorial) put up 10. Probst also led the game with eight rebounds, and Dan Beyer (Sr.-Waukesha, Wis./Catholic Memorial) and Chance Weisensel (So.-Alamogordo, N.M.) both pulled down six. Zack Ryan (Sr.-Lake Elmo, Minn./Tartan) led the team with six assists and also contributed nine points.

On the night, the Blugolds went 24-for-47 (51.1%) from the field and 26-for-36 (72.2%) from the line. Marian hit 27 field goals on 67 attempts (40.3%) and were 13-for-17 (76.5%) from the line.

In last year's opening day of the holiday classic, Eau Claire also defeated Marian College and is now 7-0 against the Sabres all-time.

Saturday night, the Blugolds will face Jamestown College (N.D.) in the championship game of the classic. Tip-off is set for 8 p.m.

Eau Claire-Marian Box Score

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