Sigel's hot hand can't stop loss to visiting UW–Eau Claire

PLATTEVILLE — Senior guard Trey Sigel caught fire Wednesday night, scoring all 17 of his points in an 11-minute stretch of the second half, but the host UW–Platteville Pioneers only got as close at 12 after falling behind by as many as 21 points.

Six-foot-4 forward Josh Weix scored a game-high 23 points, including a pair of two-hand dunks, and grabbed six rebounds to lead the visiting Blugolds to an 83­­–66 conference loss to UW–Eau Claire.

The Blugolds built a 34–26 halftime cushion and pushed the lead to 54–33 on a Deondre Lucas layup with 13:54 left in the game.

The Pioneers made a run behind the hot hand of Sigel, who buried five straight shots, including four 3-pointers, and scored 14 points in just over three minutes to help trim the UWEC lead to 64–49 with 9:36 left. Sigel hit his fifth triple of the night with just under three minutes to go and Nathan Cokenour's layup answered a Wiex dunk with 2:16 left to make it 78–66. But that's as close as it got.

Sophomore guard Robert Duax finished with a team-high 20 points, three rebounds and three assists to lead the Pioneers who fell to 8–14 overall and 1–10 in the WIAC. Junior forward Cory Vaassen added four points and a team-high six rebounds in the loss. UW–Platteville shot a stellar 52.4 percent (11 of 21) from 3-point land and 51.9 percent from the field (27 of 52), but couldn't overcome 13 first-half turnovers.

Chris Duff scored 16 points and point guard Geroge Diekelman added 15 points, five rebounds and four assists for the Blugolds, who improved to 16–6, 6–5.

UW–Platteville (8–14, 1–10 WIAC) will look to rebound Saturday at UW–Oshkosh. The Titans (13–9, 6–5 WIAC) is coming off a 70–60 loss to UW–La Crosse Wednesday night.

By Jason Nihles, UW–Platteville Athletics