Pioneers Roll To Road Win Over Blue Devils

MENOMONIE, Wis. – Four players reached double figures as the top-ranked University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball team (16-2, 6-1 WIAC) cruised past UW-Stout (7-11, 3-4 WIAC) 84-54 on Saturday afternoon inside Johnson Fieldhouse in Menomonie.

Senior Logan Pearson scored a team-high 18 points on an efficient 8-of-10 from the floor, while senior Brady Olson added 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting and matched his career-high in rebounds with nine. Juniors Max Love and Joey Fuhremann rounded out the Pioneers in double digits with 13 and 10 points, respectively.

The two teams went back and forth for the first several minutes of the contest until Olson knocked down a trio of three-pointers across a four minute stretch to give UW-Platteville a seven-point lead at 27-20 with 8:27 left in the half. That lead continued to grow as the Pioneers held the Blue Devils scoreless across six minutes while scoring nine points to lead 36-22. Pearson capped off the half by knocking down a three in the closing seconds to hand the Pioneers a 41-24 lead at the break.

UW-Platteville scored the first 11 points of the second half to increase the lead to 28 at 52-24. The Blue Devils were unable to get any closer than 20 for the remainder of the half as the Pioneers slowly increased the gap up to 30 in the final minute on a three-point make by freshman Brody Parkinson.

The Pioneers finished the game at 49.3 percent (33-of-67) from the floor after a strong first half had them at 58.1 percent (18-of-31). UW-Platteville shot 44.4 percent (12-of-27) from beyond the arc, the team's second-best three-point percentage in a game this season. 34 of the Pioneers' 84 points came in the paint, and the team held a 11-2 advantage in points off turnovers.

UW-Stout shot 32.1 percent (18-of-56) from the floor and 33.3 percent (7-of-21) from three-point range. Jacob Walczak paced the team in scoring with 24 points after knocking down five threes, while Colin Hudson added 10 points off the bench.

The Pioneers will remain on the road this week when they travel to UW-Oshkosh on Wednesday night for a 7 p.m. start.