La Crosse, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's basketball team fell, 68-64, to UW-River Falls Wednesday night in Mitchell Hall. The Eagles drop to 11-9 overall and 5-4 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) while the Falcons improve to 12-8 overall and 6-3 in the conference.

With the win, UW-River Falls moves into sole possession of second-place in the WIAC. UWL drops to a tie for third-place with UW-Whitewater and UW-Stevens Point. 
 

UWL took a 10-5 lead on JJ Paider's three-point play, but UW-River Falls went on a 12-2 run to take a 17-12 lead with 13:07 remaining in the first half on a Zac Johnson three-pointer. The Falcons led by as many as eight points in the first half, including 27-19 with 9:39 left on a pair of Jack Leifker free throws. 

The Eagles cut the margin to 27-25 on baskets from Torin Hannah, Vince Vandervest and Paider. The Falcons led, 42-40, at halftime.

UWL scored the first six points of the second half to take a 46-42 lead. Dustin Derousseau had four points and Paider two in the opening 6-0 run to start the half. Paider's two free throws with 13:32 remaining gave the Eagles their largest lead of the game at 51-44.  UW-River Falls went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 51-50 with 11:58 left on Leifker's two free throws. UWL quickly responded with another 6-0 run to extend the lead to 57-50 on a Jake Gross free throw with 10:29 remaining. 

The teams traded another 6-0 run, this time from UW-River Falls, to cut it to 57-56 on Noah Hanson's layup with 8:00 left. Back-to-back baskets from Gross and Will Fuhrmann gave UWL a 61-56 advantage with 6:24 remaining. The Eagles would miss their next 11 shots from the field. Johnson's three-point play for the Falcons tied the game at 61-61 with 5:32 left and Logan Jedwabny's three-pointer gave UW-River Falls a 64-61 lead with 4:43 remaining. A pair of Johnson free throws with :19 left extended the Falcons lead to 66-61. Fuhrmann connected on a three-pointer to cut it to 66-64, but Hanson made two free throws with :01 left for the final margin.

UWL shot 34.8% from the field, including 20.8% (five-of-24) from three-point range, and 72.2% (13-of-18) at the free throw line. The Eagles shot 22.6% (seven-of-31) from the field in the second half, iincluding 9.1% (one-of-11) from three-point range.

Paider led the Eagles with 21 points and career-high 17 rebounds, going seven-of-eight from the field and seven-of-eight at the line. It is Paider's third double-double of the season. The 17 rebounds are the most for a UWL player since Lucas Collom finished with 19 against UW-Oshkosh on February 26, 2014. Hannah finished with 10 points Wednesday night while Fuhrmann and Gross each had eight. Gross added nine rebounds. Derousseau totaled six points, seven rebounds and team-high five assists.  

UW-River Falls shot 34.4% from the field, including 33.3% (eight-of-24) from three-point range, and 94.1% (16-of-17) at the line. Johnson led the Falcons with 22 points while Hanson finished with nine. Johnson and Hanson each had six rebounds and two steals. Micah Thompson had a team-high seven rebounds. 

UWL returns to action Saturday, February 3 at UW-Stevens Point at 5 p.m.