Men's basketball wins season-opening tournament
Blugolds have best start to a season since 2003-2004
Frank Pellegrino
Issue date: 11/19/09 Section: Sports
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The UW-Eau Claire men's basketball team took down Wartburg College (Iowa) 82-76 on Sunday in the Championship game of the 2009 Buzz Levick/Pizza Ranch Tipoff Tournament.
Senior Chance Weisensel said the team had hoped to get to this position.
"Our expectations were to win it because we had never actually won a season-opening tournament," Weisensel said. "So our goal was to beat both teams, no matter who they were."
The Blugolds opened the tournament on Saturday with an 84-64 victory against Concordia University.
The game remained close and was tied at 20 with 11:32 to go in the half before Eau Claire went on an 18-2 run. After the streak the Blugolds possessed a 38-22 lead.
Senior Jacob Schlub explained why he thought made the run happen.
"We just knew we had to pick up the defense," Schlub said. "We picked it up and just stopped making silly turnovers, and we turned it up from there."
Eau Claire held a 40-27 advantage at the half and remained in control for the rest of the game. After a slow start to the second half, the Blugolds built on their lead and came away with an 84-64 victory.
Eau Claire gave up just four free throws to Concordia in the first half but gave up 24 in the second half with a large lead. Schlub said giving the other team the chance to score with the clock stopped was a big concern.
"That's one of the big things that we have been working on in practice - our pressure without fouling," Schlub said. "We know we've got to pick that up so we can be a better team."
Sophomore Josh Prince led the way for Eau Claire with 16 points. Schlub and sophomore Nick Bartlett each added 12 points of their own.
The win put the Blugolds into the championship game against the host of the tournament, Wartburg College (Iowa).
Eau Claire held a large lead for most of the first half of that game, eventually growing to a 16-point advantage. However, Wartburg made a big push at the end of the first half, cutting the deficit to four.
"The reason we started to lose our lead was foolish passes and lazy defense," Weisensel said. "Our mentality was that … we were going to play to win. So we made smarter passes and stepped it up on defense."
The Blugolds answered with another basket prior to the half and held a 33-29 halftime lead.
The teams battled for most of the second half before Eau Claire brought its lead up to 11 with 2:25 to go in the game. Wartburg made another run, though, eventually trimming the lead to four points with 43 seconds remaining.
The Blugolds answered again with a basket, ending any chance at a Wartburg comeback, and they came away with an 82-76 victory.
Schlub led Eau Claire in scoring with 20 points. Bartlett added 17 points, and senior Colin Boone had 15. Boone was named tournament MVP for his play during the two games.
Schlub credited his teammates for providing him with the opportunity to flourish.
"My teammates hit me when I was open, and I was able to knock down the shots," Schlub said. "We've got a good team where anyone can get on fire at any moment, and that night was my moment."
Coming up for Eau Claire is the UW-Oshkosh Classic next weekend. The team will face St. John's University (Minn.) Friday evening and the University of Puget Sound (Wash.) Saturday afternoon.
Even though the team is off to its best start since the 2002-2003 season, Schlub said the team is not looking past any opponents.
"We're not too confident; we know we can get beat at any time. We just want to make sure we keep a level head about it," Schlub said. "We're just trying to win as many games as we can and stay hot."
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