LA CROSSE, Wis. – Led by an impressive defensive effort, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball (8-6, 1-2 WIAC) team defeated No. 10 ranked UW-La Crosse (11-3, 2-1 WIAC) by a score of 64-41 on Wednesday night inside Mitchell Hall.
The win is the Pioneers sixth straight over UW-La Crosse and the 41 points is lowest points allowed for UW-Platteville since 2019.
The Pioneers grabbed control early, taking an early 15-2 lead behind a 10-point scoring stretch. Junior Logan Pearson scored seven of the first 15 Pioneer points, while sophomore Brady Olson and freshman Miles Hettinger each connected on a triple. The Eagles answered with a nine-point run of their own before Pearson ended the run with a three-point play. Pearson continued to put points on the board for UW-Platteville, as he scored five straight points to increase the Pioneers led to 10 at 27-17 with under four minutes to play in the first half. The Pioneers increased the lead to 11 late in the half on a three form Pearson to lead 32-21 at the break.
A 12-2 UW-Platteville run pushed the lead up to 44-24 early in the second half. The Pioneers maintained the 20-point lead for much of the half until sophomore Julian Samuels knocked down a pair of threes and a dunk to extend the lead to a game-high 27 at 60-33 with 3:27 to play. UW-Platteville wrapped up the win by a final score of 64-41.
Pearson scored a game-high 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting while Samuels finished with 14 points off the bench. Olson also reached double figures, tallying 10 points while adding five steals. Sophomore Carter Lancaster pulled down a team-high six rebounds, including three on the offensive glass, as the Pioneers outrebounded the Eagles 42-27. UW-Platteville shot 43.1 percent (25-of-58) for the game and 34.6 percent (9-of-26) from beyond the arc.
Austin Westra scored 10 points to go with nine rebounds to lead UW-La Crosse. The Eagles struggled to score throughout the game, shooting just 29.2 percent (14-of-48) from the field and 14.3 percent (3-of-21) from deep.
The Pioneers return home on Saturday, January 7 to host UW-Stout at 7 p.m.
*As with every UW-Platteville win this year, the Platteville A&W will be offering a $3 Pioneer burger the day after the win and the Platteville Taco John's will be offering 10 tacos for $10 the day after each Pioneer win.
