PLATTEVILLE, Wis. - The UW-Eau Claire men's basketball team couldn?t come back from a late first-half surge by the 23rd-ranked UW-Platteville Pioneers tonight as Eau Claire lost 75-58.

The Blugolds fall to 5-10 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) and 11-13 overall. The Pioneers are now 11-4 in the conference and 18-6 in all games. The season series is split, as Eau Claire won the Dec. 5 contest 77-69 in overtime. The all-time series is 61-44.

The Pioneers got off to a 9-2 start and pushed the lead to nine with a 16-7 score. The margin was seven at 10:39 before Eau Claire went on a 14-3 run to go up 25-21 at 5:22.

Platteville turned the game around at this point, ending the half on a 19-2 burst. There were three treys in that span, with the last beating the buzzer. The scoreboard read 40-28 at intermission.

The home team outshot Eau Claire 51.6 percent-to-44.8 percent while going 6-of-13 (46.2 percent) on threes.

The closest the Blugolds got in the second half was within 10 points. It came at 16:39 after a pair of Ryan Shea (Fr.-Duluth, MN/East) free throws. A three and a layup followed to put Platteville up by 15 again. The Blugolds kept it close for the next five minutes, getting it down to 12 and 11 a few times. An 8-2 Platteville burst put the Pioneers up by 17 and they never looked back, increasing the lead to 21 at 1:06 as they took the 75-58 game.

In the second half, the Pioneers again outperformed Eau Claire on the floor 66.7 percent-to-38.5 percent. For the game, Platteville shot 57.7 percent while Eau Claire made 41.8 percent of its shots. The Pioneers did very well from long range, going 9-of-17 (52.9 percent). Curt Hanson drained 5-of-7 to provide the deep threat. The Blugolds made 4-of-19 (21.1 percent) from long range and 8-of-12 (66.7 percent) from the line. Platteville sank 6-of-11 (54.5 percent) of their free throws. They also outrebounded Eau Claire 33-to-26.

Dan Beyer (Sr.-Waukesha/Catholic Memorial) led the Blugolds with 19 points and seven rebounds. Jeff Skemp had 27 to lead Platteville and all scorers. Hanson also had 17.

The Blugolds finish up the regular season at home this Saturday against UW-Stout. The 5 p.m. game is also Senior Night.

Eau Claire-Platteville Box Score

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