LA CROSSE, Wis. – Wisconsin-La Crosse shot .583 from three-point range Sunday while limiting Augustana to just .130 marksmanship from long range and defeated the Vikings 64-62 at Mitchell Hall Fieldhouse. Coach Grey Giovanine's club dropped to 7-4 on the season and the 15th-ranked Eagles remained unbeaten at 10-0.
 
A Luke Norcia layup with 7:11 to play gave La Crosse its biggest lead of the game at 59-49 and Ethan Anderson's two free throws 33 seconds later matched that 10-point margin at 61-51. Augustana outscored the Eagles 10-3 over the next five minutes though, with Pierson Wofford's (Springfield Lutheran HS, Springfield, Ill.) three-pointer from the top of the key pulling the Vikings to within 64-61 at the 1:42 mark.
 
Augustana got consecutive stops on the defensive end, with a pair of Micah Martin (Iowa City HS, Iowa City, Iowa) blocks causing a shot clock violation on the second. Taking over with 26 seconds left, the Vikings ran the clock down to 10 seconds before calling a timeout.
 
After the ensuing inbounds, Jack Jelen (Bay HS, Bay Village, Ohio) was fouled with three seconds left. The junior sank the front end of a one-and-one to make it 64-62. After another timeout, Jelen intentionally missed his second try and La Crosse tipped the ball out of bounds with 2.1 seconds on the clock. Each team called a timeout before Augustana finally inbounded the ball. Wofford took a pass from Austin Elledge (Highland HS, Highland, Ill.) and drove the lane, but Eagle Wyatt Cook got hand on the ball as Wofford went up and the final horn sounded.
 
The first half saw eight ties and four lead changes. Jelen had five points and Wofford four as the Vikings hit five of their first six field goal attempts and took an 11-8 lead. It remained a one-possession game until Zac Haese's three-pointer at the 11:38 mark gave La Crosse a 21-15 edge. Augustana came back to take the lead (29-27) on an Elledge jumper 3:28 before halftime and two Martin free throws gave the Vikings their largest lead of the afternoon at 31-27. A pair of Cook free throws eventually gave the hosts a 33-32 advantage at intermission.
 
The Eagles maintained a narrow lead until a Martin tip dunk with 12:19 to play put Augustana on top 46-45. However, a Norcia three-pointer sparked a 14-3 La Crosse run over the next five minutes. His layup at the 7:11 mark capped the spurt.
 
Martin finished with game highs of 19 points, five blocked shots and two steals. He also grabbed seven rebounds, one less than Wofford, who scored 13 points. Terek Nesheim led five Eagles in double figures with 14 points.
 
The Vikings shot 23 of 56 (.411) from the field and converted just three of 23 tries from beyond the arc and 13 of 22 (.591) from the free throw line. UWL shot .490 (24-29) from the floor and hit seven of 12 three point attempts to help offset a nine-of-16 (.563) performance from the foul line. The Eagles won the rebound battle 36-32 and committed 18 turnovers to Augustana's 13.
 
The Vikings, 1-1 in the CCIW,  jump back into league play on Saturday, January 4. They travel to Kenosha, Wisconsin to face 18th-ranked Carthage at 7:00 p.m.