Brody Ziegler goes up for a layup in Gustavus's 73-58 loss to UW-La Crosse on Tuesday night in St. Peter. Photo courtesy of AJ Dahm - Sport PiX.
St. Peter, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus men’s basketball team suffered a 73-58 loss to UW-La Crosse on New Years Eve at Gus Young Court. After 30 minutes of back-and-forth basketball, the Eagles used a 17-2 second half scoring-run over a six-minute span to take control 67-51 with 2:15 left in the game. Gustavus could not recover from the deficit and saw its four-game winning-streak come to an end with the loss.
Although UW-La Crosse led for most of the opening half, the first 20 minutes proved to be a back-and-forth battle. Neither team led by more than seven points in the frame, which concluded with a halftime score of 33-30 in favor of the Eagles. UW-La Crosse shot 44.8 percent (13-29) compared to 42.3 percent (11-26) for Gustavus. The Eagles also held a 16-to-13 rebounding advantage.
UW-La Crosse opened the second half with a pair of baskets to take a seven-point lead (37-30) in the early going. The two teams then resumed the back-and-forth nature of the first half, trading baskets through the first 10 minutes of the second until a Brody Ziegler (So., Mankato, Minn.) old-fashioned three-point play cut the Eagle lead to one point (50-49) with 9:41 remaining.
From there, UW-La Crosse rattled off 11 straight points to extend its lead to 12 points (61-49) on a Calahan Skogman three-pointer. Ziegler momentarily stopped the bleeding with a layup at the 5:31 mark, but the Eagles responded with six more unanswered points to take their largest lead of the game at 16 points (67-51) and all but seal the win. The 17-2 run proved to be the difference in the contest as the Eagles cruised to the 15-point win.
UW-La Crosse outshot Gustavus 47.3-to-40-percent in the game. Eagle Calahan Skogman led all scorers with 26 points on 11-of-20 shooting, which included a 4-for-8 day from three-point range. Skogman narrowly missed a double-double, pulling down a team-high nine rebounds. Luke Tweed and Lucas Collom followed Skogman in double-figures with 15 and 11 points, respectively.
Brody Ziegler led Gustavus with 13 points after going 4-for-11 from the field and 5-for-8 from the free throw line. Ziegler also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds, five of which were offensive. Martin Feddersen (Jr., Winona, Minn.) was the only other Gustie to finish in double-figure scoring with 11 points to go along with five assists.
The Gusties cap the 2013 portion of its schedule with this afternoon’s loss and will head back into MIAC play this weekend with an overall record of 7-2. UW-La Crosse will also head back into conference play on Saturday, improving to 9-3 with today’s non-conference win.