River Falls, Wis. (uwrfsports.com) – Matching a career-high, Hannah Pignato scored 17 points, and the Falcons moved to 2-0 at home with a win over Hamline 67-60.

THE RUNDOWN
Final Score: UW-River Falls: 67, Luther College 60
Location: Karges Center, River Falls, Wisconsin
Record: UWRF: 5-3, Hamline University 4-5 (0-3 MIAC)
 
WHAT HAPPENED

• Pignato scored 10 of her points in the second half, and the Falcons were able to outrun the Pipers in the fourth quarter outscoring Hamline 22-15.
• The Falcons scored the first five points of the game, and would lead the entire first quarter, with the lead being as much as eight points.
• Entering the second quarter up by three, Hamline would tie the game, and take their first lead of the game at 8:41 to go in the second quarter.
• UWRF took it right back with a three pointer from Pignato and would lead the rest of the first half.
• Pignato's three pointer would expand to a 12-0 run, and the Falcons would ead 29-19 with 4:06 to go. During the run Pignato scored five and Taylor Karge scored four points.
• Hamline would pull within six points at halftime, the score would by 35-29 at the buzzer.
• Karge led all scorers with 10 points on 5-7 shooting. She also added two blocks in the half. Hayley Rau scored nine points off the bench for UWRF on 3-4 shooting.
• UWRF shot 14-28 (50 percent) from the field in the first half.
• To start the second half, Hamline would score five straight points to pull within one point, but UWRF would storm back with an 8-0 run highlighted by a Katie Messman three.
• Hamline would tie the game by the end of the third quarter using an 11-2 run with five points coming from free throws and a pair of three pointers.
• In the fourth, the lead would change six times in the first three minutes to keep the host Falcons on edge.
• At 7:09 to go, Karge would hit a jumper and the Falcons would never trail again. Up by just two, Pignato hit another three pointer to put the Pipers away and the Falcons coasted to the seven point victory.

 
IN-DEPTH LOOK

• Four different Falcons would get into double-figures in the night. Along with Pignato's 17, Rau scored 15, Karge notched 14, and Kate Theisen added 11 points.
• Pignato's 17 points ties her career high she set her freshman year against Viterbo where she also shot 6-9 from the floor.
• Theisen would also collect nine rebounds in the contest, three of them coming offensively. The nine rebounds is her most since last year's NCAA Division III women's tournament game against Wheaton College.
• The Falcons shot 23-51 (45.1 percent) from the floor in the game. As a team they had four three pointers.
• The rebound battle swung in favor of the Falcons. 11 of their 41 rebounds came on the offensive glass.
• Karge would finish the game with four blocks, which ties her career-high she set her freshman year (three different times).
• The Falcons would struggle from the free throw line (54.8 percent) despite reaching the charity stripe 31 times.

THE OPPOSITION

• Reilly Geistfeld scored a team-high 22 points for the Pipers. She shot an efficient 8-10 from the field and added four three pointers herself.
• The Pipers were 20-58 (34.5 percent) from the floor but connected on nine of their 23 three pointers.
• The Pipers turned the ball over 21 times as a team, but had 13 steals during the game, six of them coming from Chloe Graves.

 
LOOKING AHEAD
The Falcons will remain at home on Wednesday December 14^th against St. Catherine University (6-3, 2-2 MIAC) with the start set for 7 p.m. The Falcons then head to Minneapolis with a matchup with Augsubrg College (7-3, 1-3 MIAC) on December 17^th at 1 p.m.