River Falls, Wis. (uwrfsports.com) – After a slow start, the UW-River Falls men's basketball team turned the offense up in the second half led by Devin Buckley, who scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half, in a 73-59 win over UW-La Crosse.

THE RUNDOWN
Final Score: UW-River Falls: 73, UW-La Crosse 59
Location: Karges Center, River Falls, Wisconsin
Record: UWRF: 19-1 (9-0 WIAC), UW-La Crosse 10-10 (2-7 WIAC)
 
WHAT HAPPENED

• The biggest moment of the game came in the second half, the Falcons blew open a 14-point lead with an 11-0 run capped off by a Matt Keller four-point play at 9:25 to go in the game.
• The visiting Eagles began the game as great as any road team could ask by scoring the game's first 12 points. The 12-point deficit was the largest the Falcons have faced since their win against Carthage College on November 22.
• Matt Timlin broke opened the Falcons scoring with a triple in the corner. The Falcons eventually used a 10-2 run to bring the score 18-15 with 6:45 to go in the half.
• UWRF would tie the game at 20 with 2:54 to go in the half, but the Eagles scored seven straight to regain the momentum. Matt Keller connected on back-to-back three pointers to end the half, and UWRF trailed by just one at the break.  
• Buckley began the second half red hot, scoring 11 straight points, nine coming on three straight three pointers, which gave UWRF a three-point lead with 16:50 to go.
• The 11-0 run in the middle of the second half gave the Falcons control of the game, during the run Keller scored five points, Herink scored four, and Buckley scored two. The Falcons scored on four straight possessions.
• The lead grew to as large as 19 points. Along with Buckley's 17 second half points, Herink scored nine on 4-5 shooting and Keller scored eight going 5-6 from the charity stripe.
• UWRF improved from 9-24 (37.5 percent) in the first half, to 18-35 (51.4 percent) in the second half.          

 
IN-DEPTH LOOK

• Buckley's 19 points was his most since the team's first regular season game where he scored 29 points against St. Thomas.
• During the game, senior guard Grant Erickson moved into sole possession of fourth place on the UWRF all-time assists list.
• Herink finished with 16 points on 7-10 shooting, and gathered six rebounds.
• Keller led the bench with his career-high 16 points, including 7-8 from the free throw line. Matt Timlin scored six points off the bench as well, both of his shots coming from the three point line.
• The bench for the Falcons scored 34 of the 73 points.
• The Falcons ended the game 27-59 (45.8 percent) from the floor. UWRF shot 9-24 (37.5 percent) from the three point line and 10-14 (71.4 percent) from the free throw line.

THE OPPOSITION

• Kenny Finco scored a team-high 14 points on 6-12 shooting.
• Zach Schradle shot 5-11 from the floor and Ben Meinholz shot 5-13 as each player accounted for 10 points. Meinholz also added six rebounds.
• Shooting 26-60 (43.3 percent) from the floor. The Eagles could only connect on three shots from the three point line in 16 attempts, and did most of their work in the paint with 36 points.  

 
LOOKING AHEAD
UW-River Falls will remain in the comfort of their own gym in their next game. UW-Oshkosh (12-8, 5-4 WIAC) comes to town to take on the Falcons on February 4 at 5 p.m. The last time the Falcons and Titans faced, the Falcons prevailed 79-57.