RIVER FALLS, Wis. – (uwrfsports.com) - The UW-River Falls Women's basketball team hosted the first round of the NCAA Division Three National Tournament on Friday night at the Karges Center. The number 13 UW-River Falls Falcons (23-5) took down number 17 Wheaton (Ill.) by a score of 81-56.

In the packed Karges Center, the Falcons led by as much as 28 points, and cruised to the first round victory.

In the first quarter, the Thunder jumped out to their only lead of the night with a three point shot from Kelly Lawson. The Falcons scored the next nine points to take a 9-3 lead with 7:11 to go in the first quarter.

Wheaton stepped up and came back within one point of the Falcons with the score 9-8, UWRF went on a 10-0 run to lead 19-8 with two three point shots, one from Katie Messman, and one from Brynn Liljander. Wheaton kept coming back early in the first quarter, and came within four points before another three by Messman and the Falcons ended the first quarter with a 24-17 lead.

UWRF opened up the second quarter with the first five points of the quarter to take a 29-17 lead with 8:07 to go in the second quarter. UW-River Falls again used another run, this time a 7-0 run capped off by an and-one  by Liljander to make the score 36-19 with 5:47 to go in the second.
The Falcon lead grew to as much as 20 points in the second quarter, and lead by 18 points at the halftime buzzer with the score 44-26. In the first half, the Falcons shot 18-28 (64.3 percent) from the floor and 5-9 (55.6 percent) from downtown. Liljander had 13 points and three assists in the first half. Kate Theisen had 10 points, five rebounds, and two assists in the first half.

To start the second half, Wheaton scored the opening bucket, but the Falcons started off scoring the first five of the seven points and grew their lead to 21 with 7:36 to go in the third quarter. In the third, Wheaton managed to outscore the Falcons 21-20, but River Falls still held the 17 point lead after they scored over 20 points in each of the first three quarters.

In the final quarter of play, it just kept getting better for UWRF. The Falcons scored the opening bucket, before Wheaton came within 16 points with 8:07 to go. The life of the Thunder may have come out as Messman recovered an offensive rebound off of a block, and nailed a jump shot as the time expired on the shot clock to make the score 68-50 with 7:38 to go.

Up by 20 points with 4:12 to go, UWRF used one last run to fully close the door on the Thunder. Four different Falcons contributed on the run including Theisen, Mikaela Wilson, Liljander, and Cassy Saxton. UWRF led 81-53 with 1:33 to go. The Falcons wrapped up the victory and secured their first tournament win since 1988-89 when the Falcons defeated St. Norbert 93-74.

UWRF shot 32-57 (56.1 percent) from the floor and 6-13 (46.2 percent) from beyond the arc. From the charity stripe, the Falcons were 11-15 (73.3 percent). UW-River Falls dominated on the glass grabbing 49 rebounds to Wheaton's 28 rebounds. UWRF scored 44 points in the paint, while the Thunder scored 12 in the painted area.
Leading in scoring was Theisen with 21 points on 9-13 shooting, she also had nine rebounds, four of which were offensive. Theisen also assisted on three baskets on the night. Liljander knocked home 20 points for the Falcons on 7-15 shooting including 3-6 from the three point line. Liljander also contributed five assists and four rebounds. Taylor Karge scored 12 points on 5-12 shooting and had four rebounds. Katie Messman was the fourth UWRF player in double figures with 11 points on 4-6 shooting including 3-4 from downtown. Senior Richell Mehus was 3-4 from the floor with six points, but hauled in 10 rebounds, dropped off five assists, had a steal, and even a block in the victory. Hayley Rau off the bench scored seven of the Falcons 11 bench points on the night on 3-5 shooting.

The Falcons will face the eighth ranked Tommies of St. Thomas on Saturday in the second round of the tournament. The Tommies are coming off a first round victory over Loras 76-68 in an overtime thriller in which St. Thomas was down by 12 points with 6:31 to go in the game and came back and won in overtime. The Falcons last meeting with St. Thomas was in 2006-07 when UWRF won 58-48 at Karges. The game will take place Saturday March 5^th at the Karges Center.  Tip off is set for 5 p.m.