St. Louis, Mo. -- The UW-Whitewater men's basketball team opened the Lopata Classic hosted by Washington University in St. Louis with an 81-73 loss to St. Thomas (Texas) Friday afternoon. The Warhawks will face either Eureka College or WashU Saturday at noon. 

St. Thomas held the lead for the majority of the first ten minutes of action until the Warhawks put together a big run to swing the momentum in their favor. With just over nine minutes remaining, Collin Madson (Mukwonago, Wis./Mukwonago) hit a pair of free throws to spark a 6-0 spurt. Richie Warren (Racine, Wis./Park) capped the run with a dunk to make it 27-17 with 7:35 on the clock. Two minutes later, Kelton McEwen (Bartlett, Ill./St. Francis) hit Brock Marino (Lake Villa, Ill./Lakes Community) from beyond the arc to give UWW its largest lead of the half, 36-23. UST whittled that lead down to five, 41-36, over the last five minutes of the first half. 

On the other side of the intermission, the Warhawk offense went cold. After shooting nearly 54-percent from the floor in the first half, UWW shot just 32-percent from the field in the second half. UST maintained their nearly 54-percent shooting throughout the contest. In the second half, that efficiency led to St. Thomas outscoring UW-Whitewater 45-32. 

Madson paced the Warhawks with 24 points on 6-8 from the field including 3-4 from long range. He also hit 9-10 from the charity stripe and led UWW with seven rebounds. Marino joined him in double figures with 10 points on 3-4 from the floor.