It was the battle of the birds tonight for the home opener at Karges Center as the UW-River Falls Falcons (1-2) hosted the Falcons of Concordia University (1-2) and won 90-74 for their first win of the season.
Five Falcons scored in double digits in a balanced effort.
Concordia jumped out to an en early 18-9 lead on the Falcons with their full-court pressure that lead to many lay-ups in transition. From there on UWRF battled back to take the lead 24-23 at the 8:31 mark and would not look back.
The Falcons went on to control the tempo of the game going on a 15-1 run midway through the first half.
"There was a lot of runs throughout the game," Falcon Coach Jeff Berkhof said.
Concordia to cut the lead to six points to end the half with after a big three pointer from sophomore guard Eric Kittel, younger brother of Falcon senior guard Kyle Kittel.
The Falcons were lead by junior Jon Christensen who did a little bit of everything with 14 points, six rebounds, two blocks and two assists. The emergence of freshman guard CJ Lewis was a huge boost to the Falcons as he slashed his way to eight points in the first half. The Falcons were very efficient from the field going 19-27 (70.4%) and 4-8 (50%) from behind the arc.
The Falcons started the second half off strong as the first three points came from a Grant Erickson and one layup. From there on a very balanced effort from the starters and the bench were prevalent in the end result. Concordia continued to pressure the Falcons throughout the second half just as they did most of the first half troubling UWRF at times.
The Falcons at one point in the second half lead by as many as 22 points at the 9:30 mark, but the Concordia would not go away as they were bale to cut the deficit to 15 points with just under eight minutes to go in the second half. UWRF was able to fight off the full court pressure more effectively and extended the lead back to 22 points multiple times before the game went final, coming out victorious 90-74.
Jon Christensen lead UWRF with 18 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks. He was not the only player to find success as four other Falcons were able to reach double digits in points. Erickson put up 15 points, five assists and four steals. Lewis scored 10 points while Joe Deppe added 12 points and Connor Goodwin recorded 10 points as well. As a team the Falcons shot 34-57 (59.6%) from the field, 7-15 (46.7%) from the three point line, and were efficient from the free throw line 15-17 (88.2%)
With tonight's win the Falcons improve to 1-2 on the season and will play at St. Thomas next Tuesday with tip off set for 7 p.m.
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