EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - In the last weekend of the regular season, the UW-Eau Claire men's basketball team found out where it will be seeded after a 78-65 loss to UW-Stout.

With the loss, Eau Claire drops to 5-11 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC), putting them as the seventh seed. The Blugolds will now have to travel to second-seeded UW-Platteville on Monday. Eau Claire is 11-14 overall. With the win, Stout gets into the playoffs. They qualify as the eighth seed and now have to face seventh-ranked UW-Whitewater in the first round. The Blue Devils are 4-12 in conference games and 7-18 overall.

Neither team scored a point for the first three minutes of the game, but once Stout did, it never looked back. Eau Claire wouldn't lead the whole game, though they would tie and come close several times. The Blue Devils got off to an 8-3 lead at 15:09, but Geoff Probst (So.-Moose Lake, MN) knocked down a three at 13:45 to tie it up 10-all. Stout would keep its slim lead until 8:38, when a trey put them ahead by six. Jacob Schlub (So.-Catawba/Phillips) responded with a three of his own, which was met by another Stout three-pointer. The next Stout basket was also a trey, putting the Blue Devils up 27-20.

The lead hit nine at 4:22, 3:43 and 2:59, but was 42-35 at half. At one point, the Blue Devils made five straight threes. They went 7-of-16 (43.8 percent) from long range while Eau Claire went 3-of-11 (27.3 percent). However, the Blugolds put in 10-of-13 (76.9 percent) from the line and Stout made just 3-of-4 (75.0 percent). The 48.5 shooting percentage for Stout topped Eau Claire's 39.3 percent.

The second half started with a 15-2 run from Stout. That made the score 57-37 with 13:18 to play. The lead would top out at 21 with 12:49 and 11:42 remaining. A 10-0 Blugold burst at 8:17 brought the margin down to 10, but it wouldn't be enough as Stout went on to win 78-65.

The Blue Devils outshot Eau Claire 47.6 percent-to-31.3 percent in the second half. For the game, Stout outdid Eau Claire from the floor (48.1 percent-to-35.0 percent) and sank 12-of-23 (52.2 percent) threes compared to 5-of-24 (20.8 percent) for Eau Claire. The Blue Devils' 77.8 percent on free throws also tops Eau Claire's 72.0 percent. The Blugolds did pull down five more rebounds than Stout, however.

Dan Beyer (Sr.-Waukesha/Catholic Memorial) had a double-double in the game while posting 24 points and securing 12 rebounds. Ryan Shea (Fr.-Duluth, MN/East) was a board away from a double-double of his own, as he had totals of 15 points and nine rebounds. Miles Webb had 28 points to lead Stout.

This season's series was split between Stout and Eau Claire. The all-time record is now 109-63-1.

On Monday, the playoffs begin with a game against Platteville, ranked 23rd in the nation. It will start at 7 p.m.

Eau Claire-Stout Box Score

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