Third place was on the line as the UW-River Falls Falcon men's basketball team (12-13, 10-6 WIAC) took on the UW- Plateville Pioneers (16-9, 9-7 WIAC) at Karges Center on Senior Night and came away with the victory by a score of 74-62 for their highest finish in the WIAC since 2012.
The Falcons came our firing in the first half and held on after a second half charge from the Pioneers. Four Falcons hit double digits in points, the Pioneers also had four players hit that mark.
Seniors Jordan Crocket and Kyle Kittel both were honored before the game and started the game for the Falcons, Crocket finished with five points and Kittel played five minutes for UWRF.
In a previous matchup earlier this season, the Falcons took a close victory on the road with a seven point win over the Pinoeers in which the Falcons shot 51 percent from the floor in an efficient night for the Falcons. In this second meeting the Falcons were led by two freshmen in scoring with CJ Lewis and Matt Timlin each notching 14 points.
The first half was dominated by the Falcons, shooting 7-14 (50.0) from the three point line as the Pioneers had just one three point shot on seven attempts. Timlin, off the bench, had four three point buckets in the first half, three of which were in the corner of the court. Timlin had all 14 of his points in the first half as the Falcons seven threes in the first half put them up 40-22 at the halftime buzzer.
A battle for third place was just that as the UW- Plateville Pinoeers battled back throughout the second half as they were within three points with 2:59 to go in the game after trailing by as much as 21 points in the first half. Matt Oestreich led the way in the second half push as he had 12 of his 14 in the second half, but it was too little too late as the Falcons held on and hit free throws to extend the lead and held on for the victory.
The Falcons bench outdueled the Pioneers bench getting 43 points off their bench to the Pioneers six. Along with Timlin's 14 and Crocket's five, the Falcons also got help from Garret Pearson with 11 points, Grant Erickson with 10 points, and Connor Goodwin with eight points.
The Pioneers could not get their offensive game going as they shot 22-68 (32.4) from the floor and 2-17 (11.8) from the three point line for the game. The Falcons had a solid game offensively overall as they shot 27-60 (45) from the floor and an astounding 8-19 (42.1) from the three point line.
The Pinoeers were led in scoring with Cory Vaassen and Oestreich with 14 points each as well as Boston Johnson with 12 points and Jake Manning with 10 points.
UW- Plateville will host UW- Oshkosh on February 24th at 7 p.m. in the opening round of the WIAC conference tournament.
With this victory the Falcons move into third place in the conference and will host UW- Eau Claire on Tuesday Feb. 24 at 7 p.m in the opening round of the WIAC Conference tournament. The Falcons won both matchups against the Blugolds this season.
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