Box Score

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The University of Northwestern men's basketball team saw double-digit scoring performances from four different players on Monday night, but the University of Wisconsin-River Falls was able to overcome a 10-point half-time deficit to edge the Eagles by a 79-75 margin. UNW held a lead heading into the final 2:31 of action before a surge by the Falcons would leave Northwestern searching for a win to cap off the 2013 calendar year.

The Minn. Squad got the contest started on a high note as Steven Willey (Fort Calhoun, Neb./Fort Calhoun), Eric Witthus (Chanhassen, Minn./Chanhassen), and Michael Carney (Ames, Iowa/Des Moines Christian) contributed to their team's 8-2 upper hand with 17:05 left in the first half. While UW-River Falls would fight back to a tie less than a minute later, the Eagles maintained possession of the game for the remainder of the period. UNW's biggest advantage of the first 20 minutes came as a result of pair of Kyle Ooms (Hollandale, MN/Albert Lea High School) freethrows at the 4:18 mark to leave the score at 34-23 before the game paused for halftime with a 39-29 score in favor of Northwestern.

The second period began in much of the same way as the first, with the Snelling Avenue North crew holding momentum. Blake Van Maanen (Oshkosh, Wis./Valley Christian) kicked the action off with a pair of back-to-back triples as the scoreboard read 45-29.

It wasn't long before it was a close contest as a result of River Falls' comeback efforts. The game was within four at 48-44 courtesy of a Falcon layup at the 15:19 timestamp. The tidal waves of momentum continued to go back and forth as the game was tied, followed by an Eagle surge, and finalized by the Wis. school's run with just over a minute to play.

With just 13 seconds left to play in regulation and UNW trailing by five, Willey would go on to nail a trey and bring the game within one possession. The Falcons' Grant Erickson came through in the clutch at the charity stripe and would hold on for the duration of the matchup, winning by a 79-75 final outcome.

Headlining the Eagles' performance were Van Maanen, Willey, Carney, and Thomas Shephard (Crystal, N.D./Valley-Edinburg) who all reached at least 10 points in the outing, but unfortunately for the Purple and Gold the performances were matched by Wisconsin-River Falls.

A bright spot for UNW came at the free-throw line as the UNW players combined for a 15-16 effort on the evening, en route to a 93.8 mark.

Northwestern (3-7 overall) not only has one contest remaining in the 2013 year, but it also will end its non-conference portion of the regular season on Tuesday, finishing off its involvement in the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Holiday Tournament. The Eagles will face the host school in a 7 p.m. night cap. Full tournament information, including links to live stats and a video stream, is available via the Blugold website.