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The Eagles won their next two games, including a 72-60 victory over Tri-State Saturday in the fifth-place game. That pushed UW-L’s record to 8-4 heading into Wednesday’s WIAC game against UW-Stout.
The Eagles received strong performances from guard Nicole Palmer, who nailed four of seven 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 18 points, and Karrie Lamers, who notched 15 on a 7-for-10 shooting performance. Mackenzie Hunter turned in another strong all-around game, finishing with 11 points and six rebounds.
“Nicole was struggling leading up to this game,” UW-L coach Lois Heeren said. “We tried working on her mechanics as she was just in a little shooting slump. It was good to see her have a game like this.”
UW-L, which led 35-31 at the half, nailed 15 of 30 second-half field-goal attempts, including four of six shots from behind the arc. The Eagles received plenty of help from their bench, too, as former Central High School standout Sam Aspenson finished with eight points and eight rebounds.
All told, it was a good tournament for the Eagles, said Heeren, who took her team to the “Field of Dreams” in Dyersville, Iowa, on Friday, and did a number of other fun things.
“I feel we got stronger as the tournament progressed,” Heeren said. “It was too bad we were not in the championship, but I feel good how we finished this tournament.”
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Macalester 78, Viterbo 75
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The V-Hawks are quickly becoming the hard-luck area college team as Macalester’s Brian Ranwick — with a hand in his face — buried a 3-pointer in overtime to beat Viterbo.
“We needed to make a stop at the end of regulation, and we did,” Viterbo coach Wayne Wagner said. “We stepped up in some big moments, they were able to hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer (in overtime) with a hand in his face.”
Viterbo, thanks to another standout effort from Jeremy Fradette (12 points, 11 rebounds), was able to battle back from a 10-point second-half deficit. In fact it was a jump shot by Fradette that put Viterbo on top 57-55 with 7:06 remaining in regulation.
The game went back-and-forth for the final seven minutes, and it took a free throw by Fradette to tie it at 68 with 16 seconds left in regulation. Viterbo had plenty of chances to take control in regulation, Wagner said, but Viterbo hit just seven of 16 free-throw attempts.
Viterbo led by three points on two separate occasions in the overtime session (71-68 and 73-70), but Macalester rallied each time, then won the game on Ranwick’s 3-pointer.
“Hopefully now that we have been down to the wire in three of our last four games, and pushed two to overtime, we can learn from these,” Wagner said.
Eric Ambrose, who drained four 3-pointers, led the V-Hawks (4-11) with 15 points.
