A career night by Jack Kortes got the WIAC season off right.
The junior forward scored a career-high 20 in leading the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse to a 92-72 win over UW-Stout to open conference Wednesday.
The Eagles (8-4, 1-0), who improved to 5-0 at Mitchell Hall, shot 20-for-32 from the field and 4 of 9 from beyond the arc to take a 50-29 halftime lead and never looked back.
Ben Meinholz did a little bit of everything, again, for UW-L. The senior scored 19 on 8-of-12 shooting and added eight rebounds, three blocks, two assists and a steal.
The Eagles held the WIAC’s leading scorer, John Keefe, to 14 points on just 6-of-15 shooting. Jon Ciriacks, who had scored 45 combined his last two games, had just eight points Wednesday, going 3-for-6.
The Blue Devils (6-6, 0-1) came into the game averaging 82.8 points. The Eagles were the WIAC’s lowest scoring offense (73.5 points), before the contest.
At 7 p.m. Saturday, the Eagles head to UW-Platteville (7-5, 0-1).
UW-L women’s hoops loses first game of season, drops to 11-1
UW-L is nothing but consistent when it comes to the WIAC opener. For the 12th consecutive year, the Eagles fell to 0-1 in conference.
That one loss — 73-65 to UW-Stout — is also the team’s first of the season, dropping UW-L to 11-1.
The Eagles entered the game about ready to crack the Top 25 on D3Hoops.
UW-L shot just 27.3 percent in the first half but was down just 32-27. A 27-20 fourth-quarter run put things out of reach.
Onalaska’s Emma Gamoke and Ava Kramer each had 13 points for the Eagles, while Dani Craig and Lexie Higgins added 11 each.
