CJ Lewis scored a career high in his early career for the UW-River Falls Falcons as they fell in overtime 78-75 to the College of St. Scholastica in the Merrill Thompson Classic at Superior, Wis.
UWRF started the first half strong.
Jon Christensen drilled a three points right away in the first and had another strong night finishing with 19 points and grabbing six rebounds. The first three baskets in the game for UWRF was from behind the arc, two by Christensen and one by Lewis who finished with 22 points. The Falcons finished 24-55 (43.6) from the field and 9-21 (42.9) from three point range.
UWRF took a 38-30 lead into halftime with 13 points coming from the paint, five off turnovers and 22 from the bench that was led by Lewis.
Just over five minutes into the second half
Brennan Witt scored on a lay up to give UWRF a 10 point lead over CSS. From then on the Saints battled back and never trailed by as much again.
With 9:20 left in the half
Jack Herum drove the baseline and throw down a nice one handed dunk and soon after Christensen drained another three point basket to give UWRF a seven point advantage and the momentum.
A couple big threes and some UWRF turnovers put CSS back into the game late and they were able to tie it up 65-65 with 14 seconds left. With the game winding down UWRF seemed to have the last possession to try to win the game. The Saints stole the ball with seven seconds left, however, and had a wide open game winning lay up opportunity miss to bring the game to overtime.
With the momentum now in the Saints favor they took a three point lead with 1:41 to go in the overtime period. With 52 seconds left Lewis put up a three pointer from the near side wing that missed short but Eli Rocket corralled the rebound and kicked it back out to Lewis who made the three to tie the game 71-71 with 48 seconds to go. There was also a foul on the rebound sending Herum to the line for bonus attempts. He made both to make it a five point swing and gave UWRF a two point lead.
CSS made some big free throws down the stretch to take the three point lead that would be enough for the victory as a
Grant Erickson half court heave rolled out at the buzzer.
Herum finished with nine points,
Connor Goodwin added six points and four rebounds and Erickson was the team's leading rebounder with eight.
The Falcons fall to 1-4 on the season and will play their second game of the tournament tomorrow afternoon against Northland College with tip off set for 3 p.m.
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