After winning the first half the UW-River Falls Falcons fell 61-60 to the UW-La Crosse Eagles who came back to take the lead and the victory by hitting a last second shot in a close ballgame on Saturday afternoon.
The Falcons had a four point lead going into the half, but could not maintain. UWRF had their biggest lead at seven points which they had twice in the first half. At the 5:41 mark Matt Timlin hit a three-pointer to get to the seven point margin. After the Eagles answered with a jumper, Timlin hit another three-pointer to bring the lead back to seven.
La Crosse charged back in the second half. Not even four minutes into the second half, the Eagles grabbed their first lead since the early stages of the first half. The teams would go back and forth and with less than two minutes to go it looked like the Falcons would claw their way to victory.
With 1:20 left the Falcons had their lead up to four points again thanks to a pair of free throws from Jon Christensen. Eight seconds later, an Eagle free throw made the game a one-possession, three-point game.
The teams then traded a pair of missed lay ups: the Falcons' Timlin missed one with 40 seconds left and Johnny Coenen missed one for the Eagles with 20 ticks left. After a pair of timeouts, Cale Zuiker turned on the clutch for La Crosse.
With eight seconds left Zuiker hit a three-pointer for the Eagles to tie the game up at 59-59. A quick foul by the Eagles put Grant Erickson on the line for two. Erickson made his first, but missed a critical second free throw.
Coenen made up for his missed layup as time expired as he put the biscuit in the basket to give the Eagles the one points win.
The high man for the Falcons was Garret Pearson off the bench with 12 points. CJ Lewis scored 11 and was the high point man in the starting five for the Falcons. Jared Staege led La Crosse with 17 points on the night.
The loss drops UW-River Falls to 5-4 in the WIAC with a 7-11 record overall. UW-La Crosse improves to 3-6 in the WIAC and 8-10 overall.
The Falcons next play on Wednesday for the Suits and Sneakers game against UW-Superior with tip off set for 7 p.m.
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