After a hard-fought loss on Wednesday, the UW-River Falls women's basketball team faced UW-Stout again, this time on the road, and nearly pulled out the win, but came up a bit short in an 85-80 loss.

Macy Nilsen got things going with a layup early on to give the Falcons the first lead of the game, a lead they would have for the majority of the quarter. A few moments later, Jenna Zeman, who had 17 points and six assists on the night, poked the ball loose and threw it ahead to Cassie Heinrichs for another layup, one of several fast break baskets for the Falcons on the night. 

In the second quarter, the Falcons continued to to push the pace and play with confidence on the offense end. The depth of the Falcons was shown throughout the game but especially the second quarter with Bethany Vasecka contributing all across the board and Haley DeSouza hitting three of her six made three-pointers on the night. The Blue Devils didn't go away quietly and cut the lead to one at half, a 41-40 lead for UW-River Falls.

The Falcons came out of the halftime break on fire, going on a 13-0 run and building their lead up to 61 - 46. Sam Schaeffer of the Blue Devils hit a shot to end the run, and as the game moved to the fourth quarter, UW-Stout starting gaining control. With a large size advantage, the Blue Devils pounded the ball inside and hauled in several of their 23 offensive rebounds in the final stanza. Tess Johnson and Erin O'Brien were the key contributors for UW-Stout as they took a 76 - 75 led with 18 seconds left. With the Falcons forced to foul, the Blue Devils hit their free throws and the Falcons couldn't score enough to send the game to overtime, falling 85-80.

Despite the improvement from a year ago, the Falcons fall to 0-2 on the season. Their next game will be on February 10 at UW-La Crosse.