Arden Hills, Minn. (uwrfsports.com) – With a career performance by senior guard Grant Erickson, UW-River Falls men's basketball team stormed back from 14 down to defeat Carthage College 81-75 on the road to move to 3-1 on the season. Erickson would register a career high nine assists and not turn the ball over once in 32 minutes of action. 

THE RUNDOWN
Final Score: UW-River Falls: 81, Carthage College 75
Location: Tarble Arena, Kenosha, Wisconsin
Record: UWRF: 3-1, Carthage College 2-1
 
WHAT HAPPENED

• Alex Herink would take the game by storm in the first few possessions He sank a three to start the game, and would score the first six points for UWRF on another three a minute later.  
• The first two possession lead would be for Carthage with 13:20 to go in the first half on a layup from Brad Perry to lead 19-15.
• The Red Men would lead the remaining 13:47 of the first half, and would stretch their lead to nine points with an 8-2 run to end the first half.
• In the first half, Herink would nearly score half of the Falcons points with 14 points on 5-8 shooting. He sank two threes and collected four rebounds for the Falcons. Clay Seifert stepped off the bench and would go 2-2 in the half and have five points.
• To start the second half, the Falcons would face their largest deficit early on. At 18:37 the Red Men would score the first five points of the second half to take a 14 point lead.
• UWRF would immediately respond with an 8-0 run in the next minute and nine seconds. Senior guard Grant Erickson and Devin Buckley each nailed a three pointer and Garret Pearson had a jumper to help the Falcons pull within six points.
• With momentum on the Falcons side, Carthage would use an 8-0 of their own to obtain their 14 point lead back with 15:59 to go in the second half.
• Booker Coplin would hit a three on the next possession to keep the scoring up-tempo in the second half. The Falcons forced a miss on the following possession and cut the lead back to single digits with 14:49 to go in the game.  
• The Red Men would keep the Falcons at a healthy distance and get their lead back to 12, but the Falcons stormed back with a 12-0 run to tie the game up with 11:32 to go in the game. Pearson would score seven of those points to lead the Falcons during the run.
• After the Falcons tied the game 55-55, the teams would exchange the lead three times and tie the game twice and put the score at 61-59 with crunch time coming up.
• River Falls would use six straight points to take the lead with 5:48 to go in the game, and the Red Men would take it right back with an and-one.
• The lead would be exchanged three more times in the next minute and a half, but with a layup by Brennan Witt with 3:56 to go, the Falcons would sprint to the finish line and defeat the Red Men 81-75.

 
IN-DEPTH LOOK

• Grant Erickson had career night at the point guard position. He scored eight points and dished out a career-high nine assists and had no turnovers in 32 minutes.
• Herink would finish the game as the leading scorer with 18 points. He swallowed up a game-high seven rebounds in the game and finished 6-11 from the floor.
• Witt scored a season-high 12 points off the bench for the Falcons. He was 5-8 from the floor and had two rebounds and a steal.
• Pearson put together a solid second half to finish with 11 points on 5-10 shooting.
• Buckley was the third UWRF starter in double-figures with 10 points. He was 2-5 from the three point line and had three rebounds.
• As a team, the Falcons would shoot 29-59 (49.2 percent) and 10-23 (43.5 percent) from the three point line. From the free throw line, the Falcons were 13-16 (81.3 percent).
• The Falcon bench outscored the Red Men 28-17 in the game, and had 11 fast break points to Carthage's two.

THE OPPOSITION

• In the loss, the Red Men shot an impressive 28-56 (50 percent) from the floor. The team would go 7-21 (33.3 percent) from the three point line. They attempted 19 shots from the charity stripe and would connect on 12 of them.
• Carthage had four players in double-figures on the night. Kevin Kozil scored a team-high 15 points on 4-10 shooting and had six assists as well.
• Brad Kruse would score 14 points, Mike Stevenson had 12 points, and Brad Perry would round out the fourth Carthage starter in double-figures with 10.
• Carthage got 58 points from their starters in the game and would get 17 from their bench.

 
LOOKING AHEAD
UW-River Falls will host their last home opener at Karges Arena on November 29^th against Viterbo University following the women's game at 6 p.m. UWRF will then travel to Redlands, California to take part in the Lee Fulmer Memorial Classic in a two game tournament on December 2^nd and 3^rd.