River Falls, Wis. (uwrfsports.com) – In the WIAC tournament semifinal, the UW-River Falls men's basketball team took down UW-La Crosse to clinch their ticket to the WIAC Championship that will be held at Karges Center on Saturday at 7 p.m.

THE RUNDOWN
Final Score: UW-River Falls: 68, UW-La Crosse 55
Location: Karges Center, River Falls, Wisconsin
Record: UWRF: 23-3 (13-2 WIAC), UW-La Crosse 14-13 (5-10 WIAC)
 
WHAT HAPPENED

• At 3:16, with a four point Falcon lead, senior Grant Erickson hit a layup and Brennan Witt sank a clutch three pointer and emphatic block to lead the Falcons to the win. UW-La Crosse did not score in the final 3:16 of the game.   
• The Falcons started the game firing on all cylinders scoring 11 of the first 14 points to hold an eight point lead at 11:58.
• Establishing a lead in the first half, the Falcons did not have much adversity until a run in the middle of the first half where the Eagles used a 9-2 run to tie the game at 20 with 4:16 to go in the half.
• UWRF ended the half with just a one point lead, Pearson led with seven points on 3-5 shooting.
• The Eagles stole the lead on the first basket of the second half, and would fight for the majority of the second half keeping the Falcons within their reach until four minutes to go in the game.
• With momentum in the balance, Brennan Witt sank a reverse layup, plus the foul, at 8:23 to go which gave the Falcons a four point lead after the free throw.
• The Eagles wouldn't back down and hit back to back shots to take the lead back with 7:33 to go and 5:00 to go.  
• An 8-0 Falcon run capped off by back to back three pointers by Devin Buckley and Garret Pearson gave UWRF a six point lead with 3:38 to go.
• The nail in the coffin was a sequence where Witt hit a three point shot with the shot clock winding down, then following that up with a weak side block which brought the crowd to its loudest.
• Ending the game on a 17-2 run the Falcons ran away with the win which brings them to their second straight WIAC tournament championship.

 
IN-DEPTH LOOK

• UWRF had three players in double-figures with Pearson and Buckley each scoring 13. Buckley did most of his work at the three point line going 3-4 and 5-9 from the floor.
• Witt scored 12 points off the bench shooting 5-7 and gobbled up 14 rebounds in the win.
• Seifert scored seven points, Matt Keller came off the bench and scored six points, and Erickson finished with five points.
• In the 40 minutes of action the Falcons shot 24-56 (42.9 percent) from the floor. UWRF shot 9-23 (39.1 percent) from beyond the arc.
• From the free throw line the Falcons shot 11-15 (73.3 percent) and had 26 of their points come from the bench.  
• On the glass the Falcons held a 41-31 advantage, 12 of those rebounds for UWRF were offensive. River Falls score 13 of their points off of 12 Eagle turnovers.    

THE OPPOSITION

• Austin Fritz led the Eagles in scoring going 4-7 from the floor. He made 4-5 of his free throws.   
• Milton Cummings scored 10 points off the bench for UW-La Crosse on 4-8 shooting. Zach Schradle scored nine points and came down with 11 rebounds, four offensive, in the loss.
• UW-La Crosse shot 21-54 (38.9 percent) from the floor. Six of their 19 three pointers went through the net, but the Eagles made just 7-12 free throws in the loss.     

 
LOOKING AHEAD
The WIAC tournament championship game will be held by the UW-River Falls men's basketball game on Saturday February 25 at 7 p.m. The Falcons will take on No. 2 seed UW-Oshkosh (17-9, 9-5 WIAC). In the regular season the Falcons and Titans split with each team winning the road game.