Blue Devils downed by fifth ranked Falcons

UW-River Falls 70, UW-Stout 58

RIVER FALLS (January 25, 2017) - UW-Stout trailed 28-27 at halftime, but UW-River Falls went on a two-minute, 9-2 run around the 13 minute mark of the second half and went on to hand the Blue Devils a 70-58 loss Wednesday at Karges Center.

The two teams played relatively even over the first two minutes of the second half. Stout tied the game at 28-28 at the 18:40 mark on John Keefe's free throw. Keefe knotted the score again after the Falcons' Clay Seifert tossed in a shot. The Falcons moved out to a three point lead on Devin Buckley's 3-pointer, eventually stretching the lead to seven points, 37-30 at 16:32.

Keefe banked in a 3-pointer to inch within four points when five different Falcons contributed to the 9-2 run. The Falcons would eventually take as much as a 15 point lead before Stout slowly pared away at the lead, getting as close as nine points, 62-53, with 2:05 left on Brett Ahsenmacher's 3-pointer.

Free throws, four of them in the final one-minute, 25-seconds of the game, enough to keep Stout at an arms length as the Falcons mostly held a double digit lead. Keefe, with another 3-pointer, would cut the lead down to nine points, 67-58, with just over a minute to play. But that would be the end of Stout's scoring for the night.

Keefe, who scored 11 points in the second half, scored 14 points, as did John Lahti. Lahti added eight rebounds. Sam Ortmann finished with 13 points.

The Falcons had four players in double digits, led by Alex Herink's double-double. Herink dropped in 16 points and had 10 rebounds. Grant Erickson, Devin Buckley and Garret Pearson each had 10 points.

Stout shot 46.2 percent (12-26) in the first half and finished the game shooting 37.5 percent (21-56). The Falcons shot 55.6 percent (15-27) in the second half and finished the night shooting 41.0 percent (25-61). River Falls canned nine 3-pointers.

The Falcons edged the Blue Devils off the glass, 42-35. Herink had nearly a quarter of the Falcons' rebounds. In addition to Lahti's eight boards, Keefe finished with seven and Jacob Nordstrom pulled down six.

Stout will travel to UW-Platteville, Saturday, Jan. 28, then return home to host UW-Eau Claire, Wednesday, Feb. 1.