Vaassen's hot hand leads Pioneers to 84-75 win over UW-Eau Claire

PLATTEVILLE, Wisc. – Four players scored in double figures as the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball team dominated nearly every facet of the game on the way to an 84-75 WIAC win over visiting UW-Eau Claire Wednesday night on Bo Ryan Court.

Junior forward Cory Vaassen (Dickeyville/Cuba City) had the hot hand early on, scoring 13 of his game-high 21 points in the first half, as the Pioneers 43-32 halftime lead. Vaassen made 8 of 10 field goal attempts in the victory, including 4 of 5 from downtown, and had three rebounds and three assists.

Junior forward Jared Schneidermann scored the first basket of the game to give the visiting Blugolds a 2-0 advantage a minute in, but the lead, their first and only of the game, would be short lived.

Sophomore guard Matt Oestreich (Marshfield) answered with a three-pointer, one of five triples for the Pioneers in the first half, and buried a jump shot 30 seconds later and UW-Platteville never trailed again.

Freshman Robert Duax (Dubuque, Iowa) and Vaassen buried back-to-back three-pointers to give the Pioneers a 15-7 lead with 13:12 left in the opening half.

Freshman Ethan Woodrow (Veedersburg, Ind.) made a triple of his own three minutes later to spark a 17-3 UW-Platteville run. Vaassen scored eight straight points on back-to-back three-pointers and a layup, and sophomore guard Trey Sigel (Rock Island, Ill.) hit a pair of free throws to give the Pioneers their largest lead of the game at 32-14 at the 5:39 mark.

UW-Eau Claire's Tyson Kalien caught fire in the final three minutes of the half, scoring 10 points on a trio of three-pointers, including one four-point play, to pull the Blugolds within nine at the half at 43-32. Kalien finished with a team-high 19 points and three assists.

The Pioneers maintained a double-digit lead most of the second half, stretching the lead to as much as 14 points at 65-51 on a two-handed slam by Vaassen with 9:06 to play, but UW-Eau Claire wouldn't go down quietly.

The Blugolds got as close as six points on two separate occasions in the final minutes, once on a Kalien layup with 3:14 to play, and lastly on a three-point play by Andrew Duxbury that made it 73-67 with 2:18 left.

But the Pioneers made 11 of 14 from the free throw line, including 4 of 6 from junior Boston Johnson (Oshkosh/North) and 4 of 4 from Oestreich, in the final 1:33 to preserve the victory.

Oestreich finished with 20 points, on 7 of 11 shooting, five rebounds and two steals. Johnson added 11 points, a team-high eight rebounds and five assists. Duax chipped in 14 points and five boards in 20 minutes off the bench.

Sophomore point guard George Diekelman had 13 points, seven assists and four rebounds in the loss for Eau Claire.

Coach Jeff Gard's Pioneers shot 53.7 percent (29 of 54) for the game, including 10 of 20 from behind the arc. They also committed a season-low six turnovers and assisted on 15 of their 29 made baskets.

UW-Platteville (8-8) got back to .500 with the win and improved to 2-3 in the WIAC. UW-Eau Claire fell to 9-7, 2-3. The Pioneers have now won back-to-back games in conference play after a four-game losing streak.

UWP will return to action Saturday when they welcome UW-River Falls for a 7 p.m. tip-off. The WIAC-leading Falcons (11-5, 5-0) are coming off a 56-48 win over UW-Stevens Point on Wednesday.

Written by: Jason Nihles, Sports Information Assistant