Falcons soar past visiting Pioneers with sizzling second half shooting

RIVER FALLS, Wis. — The 17th-ranked University of Wisconsin–River Falls men's basketball team overwhelmed visiting UW–Platteville in Saturday's Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game Saturday evening.

The host Falcons dominated the second half after a tightly contested opening 20 minutes of play, outscoring coach Jeff Gard's Pioneers 52–19 in the second half to run away with a 78–57 victory.

Junior forward Alex Herink scored 16 of game-high 26 points in the second half and grabbed a team-high six rebounds in just 27 minutes of play to lead the Falcons. Garret Pearson added 11 points and Clay Seifert chipped in nine points for the winners.

Senior forward Cory Vaassen (Dickeyville/Cuba City) scored a team-high 18 points and grabbed seven boards to lead the Pioneers in defeat. Junior Trey Sigel (Rock Island, Ill.) added 12 points and two assists. Junior Dan Lowe (Byron, Ill.) scored nine points off the bench.

The two teams exchanged the lead four times in the first minute and ten seconds of the second half before UW–River Falls took back control with a Herink three-point play.

After the 11–1 run by UWRF, the Falcons also used a 10–0 run to build an insurmountable 21-point lead with 10:19 to go in the game.

UW–River Falls improved to 12–1 on the year and 2–0 in the WIAC with the win. Meanwhile, UW–Platteville fell to 7–6 and 0–2. The Pioneers have now lost four of their last five games.

The Falcons shot a sizzling 63.3 percent (19 of 30) in the second half and finished 47.5 percent from the field (29 of 61) for the game and 93 percent (13 of 14) from the free throw line in Saturday's win.

UW–Platteville connected on just 31.4 percent of its shots (16 of 51) and were outrebounded 33–21 in the loss.

The Pioneers will return to action Wednesday when they host UW–Oshkosh at 7 p.m. The Titans (8–5, 1–1) are coming off 74–67 home loss to UW–Stout on Saturday.

By Jason Nihles, UW–Platteville Athletics