(Wausau) The UW-Fox (23-3) men’s basketball team helped make Head Coach Lee Rabas' birthday even happier on Sunday when they followed up their WCC-East regular season title by defeating UW-Manitowoc (20-7) 79-49 to claim the 2013 WCC Tournament championship. The Cyclones also won the tournament championship in 2011, and have won three straight WCC-East regular season titles.
The win was the 17th straight for UW-Fox after losing at UW-Manitowoc on December 10th 77-82. The Blue Devils finished the regular season in second place in the WCC-East. They earned a berth in the tournament championship game by beating UW-Marshfield, the WCC-West regular season champion, in a Saturday night semi-final.
Like the night before the Cyclones got off to a fast start on offense. Jon Braeger and Trevor Krizenesky, who both earned all-tournament honors, each knocked down 2 three-point field goals to help push the Cyclones out to a 43-27 halftime lead. UW-Fox shot 61% overall in the opening half, connected on 7 of their 12 three-point field goals, and made all 8 of their free-throws.
The Blue Devils cut the margin to 43-32 to open the second half, but Trevor Smith scored on back to back possessions to jump start the Cyclones. A steal and lay-up by Jordan Kaufman, and a Jon Schlaver lay-in off a DJ Rhodes pass, pushed the lead to 55-37 with just under 13 minutes left to play. The Blue Devils wouldn’t get any closer.
Rhodes scored 20 points to lead the Cyclones. Besides scoring 14 points Braeger had 3 assists, 2 steals, and countless hustle plays for UW-Fox. Trevor Smith closed out his Cyclone career by hitting all 5 of his field goal attempts for 11 points. Krizenesky had 10 points to go with 7 assists and Schlaver 10 points to go with 6 rebounds.
The Cyclones had just 10 turnovers and shot 60% overall for the game. Their defense held Blue Devil guard Tevin Taylor to just 12 points after he had scored 30 the night before. They also forced 18 UW-Manitowoc turnovers. UW-Fox finishes the season 23-3.
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