Box Score

RIVER FALLS, WIs. (uwrfsports.com) - In front of a record crowd of 904, the UW-River Falls women's basketball team (22-4, 13-2 WIAC) won their first postseason game since 2012 in a 53-47 victory at Karges Center.

The Falcons defeated UW-Eau Claire (14-13, 8-7 WIAC) for the third time this year, and will advance to their first ever WIAC tournament championship game on Saturday versus UW-Oshkosh (21-5, 11-3 WIAC) after the Titans defeated UW-Stevens Point 38-21.

In the first quarter, the Blugolds stormed out to a 9-4 lead to start the game with three straight three point shots. The Falcons fell behind by six points with 2:29 to go in the first quarter, but scored the final four points on the first quarter to end the quarter 16-14. Ali Clark led the Falcons with six points on 3-3 shooting off the bench.

UW-River Falls tied the game up immediately in the second quarter with a layup by Kate Theisen. The Blugolds took the lead right back with a three pointer, but Brynn Liljander answered with a three pointer of her own making the score 19-19 with 9:39 to go in the second quarter. The Blugolds then used a 9-0 run in the next three and a half minutes to take a 28-19 lead. The Blugolds were able to maintain the lead for the remainder of the quarter, the Falcons scored the final four points of the second quarter again to make the score 32-29 at the halftime buzzer. Theisen scored eight points in the first half, and Liljander scored seven in the first half to lead the Falcons.

To start the second half, the Falcons scored eight of the first 12 points to take a one point lead with 3:28 to go in the third quarter with four different Falcons contributing. Katie Messman hit a huge three point shot to cut the Blugold lead to just two points with 5:42 to go in the third quarter. UWRF had five different players score in the third quarter, and used a Liljander triple to take a 42-39 lead heading into the final period of play.

The fourth quarter the Falcons proved to be clutch down the stretch, and did not trail in the final frame of the basketball game. The Blugolds came within one point three separate times, but could not take the lead back with Theisen and Taylor Karge responding for the Falcons each time to take back command of the game. Theisen and Karge scored nine of the Falcons 11 points in the final frame to help propel the Falcons to the victory.

Theisen led UW-River Falls with 15 points on the night on 7-14 shooting and contributed three rebounds, an assist and a block. Liljander hit two three point shots and scored 14 points and snagged five rebounds for UWRF. Karge finished with eight points and seven rebounds while battling foul trouble. Katie Messman had five points and six rebounds on the night. Senior Richell Mehus scored just two points, but contributed with five assists on the night, six rebounds, and another huge game on the defensive end with four steals. Mehus is third on the single season steals list with 86 steals this year.

UW-River Falls shot 22-59 (37.3 percent) on the night and connected on three shots from downtown. UWRF won the rebound battle 42-35 with 15 of those being offensive. The Falcons suffocating defense allowed just eight points in the paint while UWRF scored 28 in the painted area.

The Falcons are now 12-1 at Karges this year, and will face UW-Oshkosh in the WIAC tournament championship this Saturday at 3 p.m. The Falcons won both regular season meetings with the Titans and last faced UW-Oshkosh in the final regular season game that gave UW-River Falls the regular season crown. With a victory, UW-River Falls will automatically qualify for the NCAA National tournament that involves 64 teams which begins on March 4.