WOOSTER, Ohio – After a two-week hiatus, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball team returned to action Monday evening with a 77-54 victory over Hanover College at the College of Wooster Kiwanis Classic. With the win, the Pioneers will face off against the home Fighting Scots on Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. Eastern in the championship game. 

UW-Platteville (7-3) jumped out to an early 12-0 lead and never trailed, holding the Panthers (6-4) to 39.7 percent shooting, including a stingy 25.8 percent in the first half. Junior Bristol Lewis led the way for the Pioneers, scoring 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 3-of-4 from deep. 

Back-to-back threes from Lewis gave the Pioneers their early 12-point lead just five minutes into the game. A make from senior Miles Hettinger pushed that lead to 14 points, but Hanover gained momentum in the later portion of the half and narrowed UW-Platteville's lead to 24-19 with 4:10 remaining. Though a 9-0 run to close out the half, featuring a corner three at the buzzer by Lucas Rameker, made it a 33-19 game at the break. 

The Pioneers would only build on that 14-point spread in the second half, finding much of the success early in the paint until a three-pointer by Rameker pushed the lead to 21 points with 11:05 to go. UW-Platteville then went to work from three-point range with Lewis, senior Aiden Wieczorek, freshman Cooper Hoffman, and junior Max Lucey all dropping in three-point makes over the next five minutes. The Pioneers took their largest lead of the night with 2:34 to go, leading by 28 points. 

Hettinger closed the night with 13 points while Wieczorek finished with 12 and Rameker added 10 points. Senior Joey Fuhremann joined Rameker in pacing the team with five rebounds apiece. 

UW-Platteville shot 50.8 percent (30-of-59) on the night, including 45 percent (9-of-20) from behind the arc. Hanover finished 23-of-58 (39.7 percent) from the floor, with 7-of-23 (30.4 percent) from three-point range. 
 

*As with every UW-Platteville win this year, the Platteville A&W will be offering a free ice cream cone (with purchase) the day after the win and the Platteville Taco John's will be offering a free churro (with purchase) the day after each Pioneer win.