The UW-River Falls Falcons (1-3) gave St. Thomas (4-0), ranked No. 6 in the country in d3hoops.com poll, all they could handle but fell short in a 70-69 loss. 

Jon Christensen and Grant Erickson combined for 34 points in the loss with Christensen going 6-14 from the field with two three pointers and also going 4-4 from the charity stripe while Erickson went 7-9 from the field with one from behind the arc and one free throw added. Christensen also had four rebounds and Erickson recorded five rebounds and five assists. The 16 points is a career high for Erickson. 

The Falcons defense gave UST fits at time as UWRF led 24-18 ten minutes into the game. One big difference in the game was UWRF committed 22 turnovers while the Tommies had just eight. Late in the half UST went on a little push and led 35-30 going into halftime. 

The Tommies started the half strong and went up seven at one point before the Falcons came charging back and at one point with just over ten minutes left held an eight point lead. UWRF fought strong countering everything the Tommies threw at them. After a big Tommie three with 6:55 to go in the game Matt Timlin came down and hit a three of his own to make it 59-52 in favor of the Falcons. With 2:54 to go the Tommies hit a big shot to tie the game up bu Erickson came down and scored on a lay-up. 

UST took a big momentum swing going up by four points with just under a minute to go. Down by four with four seconds on the clock Erickson drilled a three pointer but it would be  the last gasp for UWRF as they fell by one. 

Connor Goodwin added nine points and grabbed a team high six rebounds in the game. Garret Pearson came off the bench and scored eight points, Joe Deppe scored six points and had four rebounds. 

The Falcons will play at the Merrill Thompson Classic in Superior, Wis. this coming weekend. They will play the College of St. Scholastica on Saturday with tip off set for 6 p.m. 

Box Score