UW-Stout surged late in the second half to bring the score to 76-73 with five seconds to go, but a free throw by River Falls' Grant Erickson sealed the game for the Falcons Wednesday night in Johnson Fieldhouse. Jalen Patterson (Fr, Lauderdale, Minn.) finished with a team high 15 points and also contributed two blocks for the Blue Devils.

The Falcons (10-12, 8-5 WIAC) came out shooting, going 52 percent from the field in the first half, while Stout (3-19, 0-13 WIAC) shot only 32 percent from the field. The Falcons pushed the lead to 14 on a 13-2 run midway through the first half. The Blue Devils fought hard though, and came back to bring the game with seven points on a Isaac Elliot (Fr, Stevens Point) corner jumper at the buzzer, making the score 37-30 at the end of the first half.

In the second half the Blue Devils shot the ball much better at 52 percent, but so did the Falcons at 58 percent. Once again, River Falls jumped out to a large lead early, going on a 16-3 run to make the score 53-33 with 13:19 to go. But much like the first half, the Blue Devils found a way to fight back, and cut the lead to only four on two key 3-pointers by John Keefe (Fr, Medford). Even with this push, the Blue Devils fell short to the Falcons 77-73.

Three Falcons scored in double digits. Jon Christensen scored a game high 16, while CJ Lewis added 15 and Garret Pearson added 14. Grant Erickson also moved the ball to put up eight assists for the Falcons.

Stout had four players in double-digit scoring, Patterson had 15, while John Lahti (Fr, Turtle Lake) scored 13, Keefe 10 and Jarvis Ragland (Sr, Milwaukee) 10 but also grabbed seven rebounds.

The Blue Devils will hit the road in there next two games, first going to UW-Stevens Point Saturday Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. and then to UW-Superior to take on the Yellow Jackets Wednesday Feb. 18 at 7 p.m.