Box Score

RIVER FALLS, Wis. (uwrfsports.com)- The UW-River Falls women's basketball team has rattled off five straight wins to begin the 2015-2016 season. The success continued in the Falcons final game of November when they defeated the St. Scholastica Saints 72-50 at Karges Center.
 
Before today's matchup, the Falcons and the Saints have met a total of 28 times with the Falcons winning 18 of the 28 previous matchups.
 
In this rendition, the Falcons used a great defensive effort and great play from the perimeter players to handily defeat the Saints.
 
The Falcons were able to take an early 4-3 lead over the Saints on early buckets from senior guard Richell Mehus and junior post-player Ali Clark. After an 8-2 run by the Saints, sophomore forward Taylor Karge drilled a three pointer and junior guard Katie Messman made a basket of her own to knot the score at 11.
 
With about three-and-a-half minutes left in the first quarter, the Falcons took over via a 10-0 run. Many Falcons contributed to the run, but one Falcon in particular stood out. Junior guard Hannah Pignato had a stretch where she made four points and had one steal.
 
The first quarter ended with the Falcons on top 25-16.
 
Throughout the first half of the second quarter, the Falcons held a lead of nine points. With 2:38 left in the second quarter, junior guard Brynn Liljander made a jumper to extend the lead to 11. The Falcons would extend that lead to 13 from two free throws by Taylor Karge to bring the score to 35-22 at halftime.
 
The Falcons held the Saints scoreless in the final 3:44 of the second quarter.
 
UWRF opened up the third quarter on defense, and forced a Saints turnover, and Karge and Messman opened up the scoring by making a layup and a three pointer, respectively. Richell Mehus made a layup to bump the UWRF lead up to 18 points.
 
St. Scholastica trimmed the lead to 45-33 with 2:55 left in the third quarter, but the Falcons countered with two three pointers from Hannah Pignato and Brynn Liljander to bump the lead back to 18.
 
Another three pointer from Liljander with six seconds left in the third quarter extended the lead to 59-39.
 
Hannah Pignato opened up the fourth quarter with a layup to extend the deficit to 22, and Liljander hit another three pointer to make it a 22-point lead. Just over one minute later sophomore reserve post player Hayley Rau scored her first points of the game.
 
With the Falcons up by a wide margin, some of the reserves saw some action on the court. Freshman forward Elizabeth Altenburg made a free throw and freshman forward Ashley Schramel made two free throws.
 
Brynn Liljander and Hannah Pignato led the Falcons. Liljander scored 18 points with 3 rebounds and Pignato scored 13 points on an efficient 6/7 shooting night.
 
The Falcons dominated in all aspects of the game. UWRF led in points off turnovers, bench points, second chance points, and points in the paint.
 
After the victory over St. Scholastica, the Falcons now lead the overall series 19-10 over the Saints.
 
UWRF has seven days off until its next game when the Falcons travel to Northfield, Minn. to square off against the St. Olaf Oles on Monday, December 7. The tipoff is set for 7 p.m.