EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (Blugolds.com) - While the UW-Eau Claire men's basketball team led most of the first half, it was unable to hold on in the second and fell 69-64 against UW-La Crosse at Zorn Arena today.

The Blugolds drop to 4-3 overall and 0-2 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Eagles improve to 6-2 overall and 1-1 in the WIAC.

The two teams played balanced tonight with the exception of La Crosse controlling rebounds. The Eagles finished with 37 boards, 11 on the offensive end, while the Blugolds had 27, two of which were offensive. La Crosse scored 10 second-chance points to Eau Claire's four.

After Eau Claire led most of the first half, the two teams went into the locker room tied at 28-28. The Blugolds outshot the Eagles 56.5 percent to 34.4 percent in the first.

The Blugolds struck first in the second half to go up by two but the Eagles then went on a 16-2 run to take a 12-point lead, their largest of the game. Eau Claire chipped away at the lead and was within three points four times, with the last time being at 11 seconds. That would be as close as the Blugolds would get as they were forced to foul Tony Mane, who then drained two free throws to put the Eagles up by five.

For the game, Eau Claire was 26-for-51 (51 percent) while La Crosse was 24-for-60 (40 percent). The Blugolds and Eagles both went 13-for-28 from the floor in the second half.

Geoff Probst (Sr.-Moose Lake, Minn.) finished with a game-high 26 points while he and Josh Prince (So.-Chippewa Falls, Wis./Chi-Hi) led the Blugolds with five rebounds apiece. Marcus Ruh (Fr.-Green Bay , Wis./Bay Port) added 10 points and had a game-high two steals.

La Crosse's Mane had a team-high 24 points as he went 8-for-19 from the floor and 4-for-4 from the free throw line while Trevor Stratton had 18 points and Austin Scott added 15. Kurt Kincaid had a game-high seven rebounds.

The Blugolds will be back in action with a game at 7 p.m. against UW-River Falls on Wednesday at Zorn Arena.