RIVER FALLS, Wis. - Wisconsin-River Falls scored the final 10 points, including a game-winning three-pointer by Arik Smith at the buzzer, to defeat Pacific Lutheran, 57-54, in a non-conference men's basketball game played Saturday night in Karges Center.
The host Falcons, who improved their record to 4-7, led only twice in the entire game. The first time came when UT Udo hit a free throw about one minute in to put UWRF ahead 1-0, and the second time came on Smith's basket at the end of the game. For Pacific Lutheran, now 2-9, the loss was heart-wrenching, particularly in light of seeing a 20-point first half lead disappear.
Smith's deciding basket ended a furious rally by the Falcons, who held the Lutes scoreless over the final 2:26 of the contest. PLU turned the ball over twice, missed the front end of a bonus foul situation, and also missed two shots from the field during that time.
Pacific Lutheran held a 54-47 lead following a Bryce Miller free throw with 2:29 to play, but the Falcons turned a pair of steals by Will Taylor into a 7-0 run, tying the game at 54-54 on Zach Peterson's three-point play with 51 seconds remaining.
After the Lutes missed a pair of shots from the field, the Falcons ran the final 26 seconds off of the clock before getting the ball to Smith, who came into the game as the team's leading scorer averaging 14 points per game. To that point he had scored only two points, those coming only one minute before on a jump shot, but he found the range with the winning shot.
The game was a runaway in the early going as Pacific Lutheran raced out to a 20-point lead with 6 1/2 minutes left in the opening half. The Lutes used four straight three-pointers, the last two by Cameron Reister, to expand a 15-5 advantage to 27-7 over a period of about five minutes. They eventually took a 33-20 lead into the halftime break.
Pacific Lutheran expanded its advantage to 39-22 a little more than three minutes into the second period on Cameron Schilling's jumper, but River Falls whittled away at its deficit throughout the remainder of the period before Smith hit the deciding basket.
Miller, a freshman post out of Fife High School, had another solid outing for PLU with 16 points, including 7-for-9 shooting from the field. Schilling added 14 points and a team-high eight rebounds, while Reister was 4-for-6 from beyond the three-point arc in finishing with 12 points.
Zach Peterson notched game highs of 26 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Falcons.
PLU shot 39 percent (21-for-54) from the field including 35 percent (7-for-20) from beyond the three-point line, while UWRF finished at 48 percent (21-for-47) overall and just 23 percent (3-for-13) from long range. The Falcons were 12-for-14 from the foul line and that proved decisive as the Lutes were just 5-for-9. The rebound battle was fairly even, River Falls finishing with a 33-30 advantage, and the turnovers were minimal, PLU with nine and River Falls with 11.