EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - The UW-Eau Claire men's basketball team came up big tonight, winning 57-54 against No. 16 UW-Oshkosh at W.L. Zorn Arena tonight.

The victory sends the Blugolds back to .500 in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) play with a 3-3 record, while their overall record is 9-6. Oshkosh, who is ranked 16th in the latest D3hoops.com poll, falls to 5-2 in the WIAC and 11-4 overall. The win marks only the second time Eau Claire has beaten Oshkosh since January 16, 2002.

The Titans only held a lead for less than one minute and thirty seconds in the first half. Once the Blugolds took the lead at 10:51 in the first period, they never gave it up. A 15-4 run in the middle of the first period helped the Blugolds take the lead back and put some space between them and the Titans.

The Blugolds increased their lead to eight by the end of the first, and took a 12-point lead, their largest of the game, early in the second. Oshkosh then challenged Eau Claire the rest of the way and got to within one point five times in the final 11 minutes of the game. In the final minute, Eau Claire was able to do just enough to stay ahead of the Titans to take the victory.

Eau Claire outshot the Titans 52.4 percent-to-42.6 percent. The Blugolds were 22-for-42 from the field, while the Titans shot 20-for-47 from the field. Eau Claire also outrebounded the Titans 31-to-26, but Oshkosh shot better from the free throw line (68.8 percenter-to-60.0 percent).

Freshman Ryan Shea (Duluth, Minn./East) led the way for the Blugolds with 15 points behind 5-for-12 shooting from the field and 3-for-6 shooting from the charity stripe. Shea was also second on the team with seven rebounds and also tallied a team-high three assists. Geoff Probst (So.-Moose Lake, Minn.) also reached double figures with 13 points and led the team with eight rebounds.

The Titans were led by Dane Sekar-Anderson with a game-high 25 points. D.J. Marsh was the Titans only other double-digit scorer with 12 points. Jordan Johnson, who came into the game second in the WIAC in rebounding, pulled down a game-high 12 boards tonight.

Up next, Eau Claire will travel to River Falls to play the second game of a doubleheader. The women will play the first game at 3 p.m. and the men's game will follow.

Eau Claire-Oshkosh Box Score

- KM -