The UW-River Falls Falcons (9-12, 7-5 WIAC) played host to the UW- Oshkosh Titans (12-9, 6-6 WIAC) in a very crucial conference game with major postseason tournament implications and came out on top 57-53 with three Falcons hitting double digits in points.
The Titans were able to squeeze out a buzzer beater to beat the Falcons when these two teams first met in early January but tonight the Falcons were on the other end of a close game lead by Jon Christensen with 14, CJ Lewis with 11 and rounded out by Grant Erickson with 11.
"It was a big game for us if we wanted to get up in that three or four spot in the conference tournament seeding," Falcon Coach Jeff Berkhof said. "We needed to win this game. It was just nice to beat UW-Oshkosh after being on the losing side the last couple of times."
These evenly matched teams started right where they left off in their previous tightly matched meeting. In a half where neither team was able to pull away and featured back and forth action from the tip to the final seconds of the half. The Falcons got off to a quick 10-4 lead, but from there on the Titans would close gap.
The Falcons largest first half lead was four points and the Titans largest lead reached seven points with 10:00 remaining in the first half. Christensen led the Falcons with eight total points in the first half and Erickson tailed two steals as well. The Falcons trailed the Titans 30-26 into half after a very tough layup by the Titans as time expired.
The second half was just as close as the first half as there were a total of seven lead changes and three ties. Â Lewis started out the half with back-to-back three pointers to give the Falcons a 31-30 lead over the Titans. After the Titans regained the lead 34-31 with a three pointer of their own, Â Lewis answered yet again with another big three to tie the game back up at 34-34.
Both teams shot very well from behind the three-point line as the Falcons were 6-15 (40%) and the Titans were 9-22 (40.9%). The Falcons were trailing 41-40 with 10:20 remaining in the game just before Erickson hit a three pointer in the corner to regain the lead for the Falcons 43-41. UWRF was able to extend their lead to five points with 4:21 remaining in the game, but the Titans would not go away just yet.
UWRF took a 53-52 lead with just 2:15 remaining in the game before Lewis hit his biggest three pointer of the three he made on the night to give the Falcons a 55-53 lead with just under two minutes remaining. The Falcons were able to hold onto the lead, not allowing the Titans to score the rest of the game and winning by a score of 57-53.
 Jack Herum led the Falcons with nine rebounds while Erickson had 11 points, three assists, and two steals. Lewis shot a perfect 4-4 from the field, and was a 3-3 from behind the three-point line
This win puts the Falcons all alone in fourth place in the WIAC, just one game ahead of UW-Oshkosh heading into the final four games of the regular season.UWRF  will travel  to play the UW- Stout Blue Devils (3-13, 0-7 WIAC) next Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Box Score
