Despite a career night for Tess Lueders (Lakeland, MN, Stillwater), the Falcons dropped an away match against UW-Superior, 49-43 on Wednesday night in Superior.

Lueders finished with a season-high and career best 12 points.  This eclipsed her previous career high of 11 which came on Nov. 23, 2010 against Macalester.

Alise Holst (Plainview, MN, Plainview-Elgin-Millville) also finished with a strong performance and led all scorers with 17 points, and her 11 rebounds gave her a double-double on the night.

But it was poor shooting as a whole by the Falcons that led to Superior's victory. 

During the first half the Falcons were a dreadful 6-29 from the field goal range, which amounts to 20.7 percent.  The Falcons were never able to overcome their poor shooting in the first half, as their largest lead and only lead was two with 11:00 to go in the half. The Yellowjackets took advantage of the cold shooting to build a 25-20 lead at halftime. Superior led by as many as six during the half.

Even though the Falcons had a tough night taking the lid off the basket, they were still able to put up a tough fight, which made the last few minutes of the game come down to the wire.

With 9:20 to go in the game, the Falcons trailed by nine, the largest deficit on the night.  But the Falcons showed bursts of life and trimmed the Yellowjacket led down to four with 1:01 remaining.  However, still trailing by two possessions, the Falcons were forced to foul and Superior's Connie Urmanski was able to hit 5 of 6 from the free-throw line to close the game for the Yellowjackets.  Urmanski led the Yellowjackets with 14 points on the evening.

The Falcons outperformed Superior on the battle of the boards, ripping down 42 compared to Superior's 35.  Maranda Dohrn (Lake City, MN, Lake City) led all players with 12 boards, and was just shy of a double-double as she dropped in eight Falcon points.

Both teams were plagued by turnovers as the Falcons committed 25 and the Yellowjackets a not much better 22.

But in the end, it was the poor shooting that doomed the Falcons.  They finished the game 13-54 for a mere 24.7 percent.  The Yellowjackets, though cold in the second half (6-20), finished the game 16-43 for 37.2 percent on the night.

Earlier this season on Dec. 1, the Falcons had beaten the Yellowjackets 78-58 at the Karges Center.

The loss snaps the Falcons' two-game winning streak.  UWRF's overall record falls to 13-6.  They are 5-5 in the WIAC.  UW-Superior meanwhile improves to 8-11 and 2-8 in the conference.

Up next for the Falcons is a home match against UW-Oshkosh. Game time is set for 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Karges Center.  The Falcons are 7-1 in games played at Karges.

 The Falcons fell to the Titans back on Dec. 11, 2010, 61-52.  The Falcons are 21-44 all time against Oshkosh.

Box Score