Issued: January 17, 2004

MEN'S BASKETBALL TROUNCES ST. MARY'S

EAU CLAIRE - The UW-Eau Claire men's basketball team shot a season-high 57.1 percent in trouncing the Cardinals of St. Mary's 78-50 for the second consecutive year here tonight at Zorn Arena.

Buck Smith (So.-Superior) got things started with a lay-up inside and the Blugolds would never look back. Eau Claire opened up the game on a 21-4 run with Smith scoring six of the first eight points.

The Cardinals were able to whittle the lead down to 10 before the Blugolds went on a 12-4 run to close the half and send Eau Claire into halftime with a 40-22 lead.

The Blugolds came out strong to start the second half going on a 14-3 run to go up 29 points with Dan Archambault (Jr.-Oshkosh/West) scoring eight of the 14 points. Jesse Breidenbach's (Jr.-Oregon) free throw with 11:57 remaining would put Eau Claire up a game-high 32 points.

Smith led three Blugolds in double figures with a career-high 19 points on 8 of 9 shooting. Archambault added 17 on 5 of 5 shooting from the floor while Casey Drake (Jr.-Rhinelander) finished with 14.

Smith led all rebounders with nine to help give Eau Claire a 34-22 rebounding advantage while Archambault had a game-high four assists. The Blugolds had a convincing advantage from the charity stripe going 41 times compared to St. Mary's 17 and converting on 28 of the attempts.

Eau Claire improves to 9-7 overall with the win while St. Mary's falls to 2-12 on the year.

The Blugolds will be in action next when they host UW-Platteville Wednesday at Zorn Arena. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Eau Claire-St. Mary's Box Score