Box Score EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - The UW-Eau Claire women's basketball team went on an 11-0 run late in the first half that went a long way in garnering a 86-61 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) semifinal victory over reigning WIAC tournament champion UW-Stout.
Before the action started Michelle Burns (Sr.-Eau Claire, WI/North) was honored with the Judy Kruckman Scholar Athlete Award for women's basketball in the WIAC.
The game started off with Stout scoring the first four points of the game and didn't let the Blugolds, who are ranked 20th by D3hoops.com, score until the 17:07 mark. Heather Witt (Jr.-Kendall, WI/Royall) got the Blugolds started with a three pointer and Burns followed with a jump shot. Heidi Arciszewski (Jr.-Thorp, WI) got her first points of the game with a three pointer to put the Blugolds up by four. Stout would get the lead back with a Lindsey Gerber layup, but the Blugolds went on an 11-0 run to get the score at a 20-10 Blugolds advantage. Stout would get the lead down to four, but Rachel Mueggenborg (Sr.-West Salem, WI) and Witt made back-to-back three pointers. The Blugolds increased their lead throughout the half, with Arciszewski getting a steal with one second left and getting a layup that would make the score 48-29 at halftime.
The Blugolds continued their great team play in the second half. Burns had back-to-back layups that would make the score 56-31 with 16:39 left to play. The Blugolds then got a Hannah Mesick (Fr.-Chatfield, MN) layup and Arciszewski fastbreak layup to keep the lead at 25. Both teams then went on a scoring drought. Mesick would have another layup with 11:18 left to play and to make the score 62-38. With 6:02 left in the game Burns went a scoring run with four straight free throws and a layup. Kali Houselog (Sr.-Neenah, WI/St. Mary Central) would then get the Blugold lead in thirties with a layup at the 4:28 mark. Burns ended the Blugolds great scoring effort of the night with two back-to-back jumpers. Every Blugold played tonight and the score at the end of the game would be 86-61.
The Blugolds shot awesome tonight going 60 percent from the field, 56 percent from three point range, and 75 percent from the charity stripe. The Blue Devils shot 35 percent from the field, 12 percent from three point distance, and 65 percent from the free throw line. The Blugolds were outrebounded 37-33 and the Blue Devils had more offensive (19) rebounds than defensive rebounds.
Burns led all scorers with 27 points and six rebounds. She went 10-17 from the field and 7-9 from the free throw line. Witt almost had a triple-double, scoring 13 points, career-high 10 assists, and six rebounds. Witt went 2-2 from three point range. Arciszewski had 11 points and Mueggenborg had nine points. Stout had Julia Hirssig with 20 points and 13 rebounds, 10 of them being offensive.
Next up is UW-Stevens Point, the third seed in the WIAC tournament and who defeated fourth-ranked UW-Whitewater, on Saturday for the WIAC Tournament Championship at 3 p.m. at Zorn Arena.
Eau Claire-Stout Box Score
