A half-game away from Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) tournament contention, UW-Eau Claire men’s basketball hosted the UW-Whitewater Warhawks at home on Saturday, Feb. 14 at The Sonnentag Center.
The Blugolds entered Saturday’s game losers of their last two, last falling to UW-Oshkosh 84-75, while the Warhawks entered winners of their last two, last defeating UW-Platteville 66-51.
In the teams’ first matchup of the season on Jan. 24, the Warhawks came out on top, winning 83-76 in overtime. Despite leading the Warhawks 35-31 at halftime, the Blugolds couldn’t hold on to the win, as the Warhawks made 9-12 free throws in overtime to clinch the win.
Saturday’s contest began with strong scoring from both sides, with each team making their first three shots. At the 14:48 mark down 13-10, Head Coach Zach Malvik subbed in first-year guard Roan Demovsky for third-year forward Will Boser.
This substitution featured a smaller lineup consisting of 6 ‘1 fourth-year point guard Andre Renta, 6′ 0 guard Demovsky and 6 ‘1 first-year guard Tyler Haney. Malvik said he trusted Demovsky and Haney together on the court early defensively.
“They were giving us a little more defensively. I liked that matchup a little better for us,” Malvik said.
From 14:48 to 10:06 left in the half, the Warhawks went 2-7 from the field with Haney and Demovsky in the lineup together. During that stretch, the Blugolds scored eight points in the paint, tying the game 18-18.
With 2:42 left in the first half, Warhawks’ Collin Madson completed a three-point play after getting fouled on a made layup to tie the score 31-31. To round out the first half, Demovsky made a free throw, giving the Blugolds a 37-35 lead into halftime.
Starters fourth-year forward Carter Lichtsinn, fourth-year forward Xavier Lewis and Renta accounted for 28 of the teams’ 37 points in the half. Lewis’s ten points exceeded his scoring in the Blugolds last two games following Saturday’s matchup.
Six of Renta’s nine points came from mid range shots opened up by the Blugolds’ pick and roll game.
“A big thing we work on is just ball screen reads,” Renta said. “Especially me, the last two years you kind of get used to different coverages, (and) they happened to be in a drop.”
With 16:17 left in the game, Haney made a three to put the Blugolds up 46-41. With 11:03 left, a layup from Madson put the Warhawks up two at 54-52. Two made free throws from Lichtsinn with 3:36 left brought the score to 68-65.
The Warhawks went on to score eight unanswered points, holding the Blugolds to just three points at the end of regulation, as the Blugolds fell 76-68.
Lewis, who led the Blugolds in scoring with 18 points, said the team has tended to hang around with conference teams, but they can’t seem to finish the games out on top.
“There’s always a five minute stretch where we kind of go haywire. It’s hard to come back from those,” Lewis said.
Despite going 15-30 from the field in the first half, the Blugolds shot 42 percent from the field in the second half and shot 7-16 from the free throw line. In total, the Blugolds’ 14 missed free throws is the most for the team in a single game this season.
“We got to make our free throws to give ourselves a cushion, and we didn’t shoot it great from three tonight,” Malvik said.
The loss on Saturday represents the Blugolds’ fifth conference loss in games where the team was either leading at half or trailing by one possession.
Malvik said the team is not going to give up and quit fighting.
“We’re going to try to keep getting better and try to find a way to win this next one,” Malvik said. “It’s tough when you lose a few games, and sometimes (there’s) a tendency to lose a little fight. I thought our competitiveness was there, I thought they competed.”
For Renta and Lewis, their senior seasons are potentially coming to a near end as there are two regular season games left in the season.
The top six teams in conference make the WIAC Tournament and as the standings currently sit the Blugolds are a half-game back from the last spot which is currently held by UW-Stout.
“We’re lucky to at least have an opportunity to make a run, just got to go out and do it,” Renta said.
The Blugolds next face UW-Platteville Wednesday, Feb. 18 at the Sonnentag.
Benes can be reached at [email protected].
