SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The UW-Eau Claire women's basketball finished in fifth place at the San Diego Surf N? Slam tournament, losing to host school Point Loma Nazarene University 51-71 here today.

The loss drops the Blugolds, who are ranked 22nd in the latest D3hoops.com poll, to a 9-3 overall record, while the Sea Lions improve to 8-2. Point Loma is ranked 10th in the latest National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division I Women's Basketball Top 25 poll.

The Blugolds took an early lead, with Hannah Mesick (Fr.-Chatfield, Minn.) scoring the first basket of the day. Michelle Burns (Sr.-Eau Claire, Wis./North) would follow 30 seconds later with another score to put the Blugolds ahead 4-0. Point Loma then started to chip away at the lead, and the Sea Lions took their first lead just over five minutes into the game. Eau Claire would come back to take the lead again after Missy Fremstad (Jr.-Osseo, Wis./Osseo-Fairchild) stole the ball a minute later, but Point Loma then took the lead and never looked back with 12:34 remaining in the first half. The Sea Lions pushed their lead to nine on a 12-2 run lasting more than five minutes, and the Blugolds were only able to close Point Loma's lead to eight by the end of the half.

Heidi Arciszewski (Jr.-Thorp, Wis.) cut the lead to six with the second half's opening bucket, but the Sea Lions would answer with a bucket of their own. Eau Claire was able to stay in the game, never being down by more than 11 points, and closed the gap to three points by a score of 44-41 with 11:37 remaining in the game. Point Loma then began to apply pressure and increased its lead steadily, going on a 15-0 run ending at 6:18 to make the score 59-41. Eau Claire was only able to score 10 more points the rest of the way in the 20-point loss.

Despite the score, the Blugolds had three different players leading the game in scoring, rebounding and assists. Arciszewski led the game with 19 points and was the only Blugold in double figures. Mesick and Fremstad both added eight points, while Burns led the game in rebounding with eight. Heather Witt (Jr.-Kendall, Wis./Royal) also led the game with a career high eight assists.

The Blugolds also had a higher shooting percentage than Point Loma, going 19-for-45 (42.42%) from the field, compared to the Sea Lions' 41.7% (25-for-60) performance. From the free throw line, Eau Claire went 10-for-16 (62.5%) while Point Loma went 16-for-22 (72.7%).

The major difference in the game was turnovers. Eau Claire had eight more turnovers than Point Loma, with 27 turnovers compared to the Sea Lions' 19. Point Loma was able to convert Eau Claire's turnovers to 27 points, while the Blugolds only scored 17.

Up next the Blugolds will take on conference opponent UW-Superior on Wednesday, January 9. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Zorn Arena in Eau Claire.

Eau Claire-Point Loma Box Score

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