Men’s Basketball fails to win against Oshkosh

    Blugolds can’t find their rhythm against the shooting onslaught of the home team

    More stories from Kelsey Smith

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    Photo by Kelsey Smith

    The men’s basketball team looks to improve their perimeter defense in their next matchup against UW-Stout.

    As a season progresses, teams tend to find their identity and rhythm, but on Saturday night, a 79-66 loss at the Kolf Sports Center in Oshkosh left the UW-Eau Claire men’s basketball team with more questions than answers regarding their defeat.

    After losing by eight points in their first game against Oshkosh, Eau Claire looked for payback.  The Blugolds’ Josh Weix and Oshkosh’s Brett Wittchow went head-to-head in a scoring frenzy. By the first half, both teams were well into double digits.

    With under six minutes remaining in the first half of the game, the score was locked up at 19 points. UW-Eau Claire then went on a 9-0 scoring run to take a commanding lead. Subsequently, Oshkosh got fired up from beyond the arc and began to dominate the contest.

    The Titans ended up making seven straight three-pointers before halftime.

    Eau Claire continued to struggle against the Titans as they went on to cash in on 17 efforts from beyond the three-point line. The Blugolds did the best they could to get back into the game, but Oshkosh continued to make the majority of their field goal attempts.

    In the second half, the Titans hit 16-25 from the field including 11 of 15 from beyond the arc.

    The Blugolds could not match the three-point bombardment of Oshkosh. Eau Claire was only able to shoot 20 percent compared to Oshkosh, who shot over 58 percent. Brett Wittchow led the way for the Titans scoring a career-high 26 points.

    Weix matched his own career-high with 25 points, on a very efficient 12 of 14 night. Weix also added 15 rebounds to round out his strong performance. Chris Duff and Jack Martinek followed Weix with 11 points apiece.

    The Blugolds will travel and face their crosstown rival, the UW-Stout Blue Devils on Feb. 1, where they will look to improve on their defense of the three-point line.