Box Score

MEQUON, Wis. (uwrfsports.com) - The UW - River Falls Men's basketball team fell in their regular season opener against Concordia University on the road by a score of 98-91.
Starting the game, the Falcons came out on a 10-3 run and lead by seven, which turned out to be the largest lead of the game for the Falcons. Senior forward Jon Christensen started off hot and hit his first two shots.

Concordia then responded with a 17-4 run and took the lead. Concordia paced the contest, and lead most of the game with the Falcons last lead coming at 9:54 in the first half. The Falcons trailed by a score of 47-41 at halftime with junior forward Garret Pearson leading the way with 13 points on 6-9 shooting.

In the second half, it was a classic shootout. Both UWRF and Concordia scored 50 or more points in the second half. The Falcons came out of the break and came within two points of Concordia, but Concordia responded with a 15-4 run that put the score at 62-49. Eric Kittel had the hot hand for Concordia, finishing with a career high 30 points on 10-18 shooting and career high seven three pointers.

The Falcons found themselves trailing by 20 points with just about 10 minutes to go in the game, and attempted a furious comeback behind a 10-2 run at the end of the game and found themselves down just seven with 39 seconds to go, but could not complete the comeback and fell in their first game of the season.

Leading the Falcons offensive attack was Pearson with 23 points, Pearson also led the team in scoring in their exhibition game in Madison. Pearson shot 11-16 on the night to go along with his five rebounds on the night. Christensen scored 13 points in the second half, and had his first double-double of the year with 18 points and 11 rebounds.

Off the bench, Brennan Witt scored 14 points on 7-9 shooting and swiped seven rebounds. Connor Goodwin also added 10 off the bench on 5-9 shooting with eight of those points coming in the second half.

The Falcons outrebounded Concordia 48-33 in the game, and shot a better percentage (47.5 percent) from the floor than Concordia (43.5 percent). Concordia shot 14-35 (40 percent) from the three point line. The Falcons were 5-21 (23.8 percent) from downtown.

The Falcons next game will be their home opener against Bethel University on November 17 at 8 p.m. at Karges Center. The Falcons lead the all-time series against Bethel 34-14. The Falcons last meeting with Bethel was in Arden Hills last November with Bethel getting the win 81-67.