Box Score

The Falcon men's basketball team played a strong opening-season game on Friday night, but lost a 69-62 decision to Wittenberg University at the Lee Pfund Classic being played at Wheaton College.

The Falcons trailed, 28-16, at the half. Jay Sewer led UWRF with five points while Ben Gresmer scored four and Devin Buckley three. Gresmer and Zach Smith each had three rebounds. The Falcons shot 7-30 from the field in the first half, including 2-14 from behind the arc. The score was tied twice in the first 20 minutes. The first came with 10:44 to play when Buckley hit a three to tie the game at 10. A minute later Gresmer put down a dunk to give the Falcons a 12-10 lead. Another minute later Wittenberg took a 14-12 lead and they held the lead for the rest of the half.

In the second half Wittenberg built a 40-28 lead with about 14 minutes to play. But the Falcons crawled back into the game. They went on a 7-0 run to gfet to within 40-35 with 12:20 to play. Sewer scored five of the seven points in the run. UWRF got to within 47-44 when Smith hit a three and later made 1-2 free throws with 6:29 to play. UWRF got to within five several times after that. With just 23 seconds to play Grant Erickson hit two free throws to pull UWRF to within 66-62, but that was as close as the Falcons could get.

Ollie White paced the Falcons with 13 points and six rebounds. Sewer and Buckley had strong first games for the Falcons scoring 12 points each. Erickson led the Falcons with four assists and he scored seven points.

Wittenberg, a team that earned votes in the D3hoops.com pre-season poll, was led Zach Leahy who scored 16 points and had seven assists.

The Falcons will next play either Wheaton or Blackburn at 6 p.m., on Saturday in the second day of the Classic.

Box Score