Titans Lose WIAC Opener In Overtime

Jack Herum's 3-point basket with five seconds left in overtime lifted UW-River Falls past UW-Oshkosh, 76-75, in the men's basketball conference opener for both teams on Wednesday (Jan. 6) in River Falls.

Charlie Noone capped a string of eight straight UW-Oshkosh points by converting a pair of free throws to give the Titans a 68-65 lead with 36 seconds left in regulation. UW-River Falls cut its deficit to 68-67 on a jumper by Jon Christensen with 24 ticks left, and Titan Taylor Jansen split two free throws for a 69-67 advantage with 15 seconds remaining.

The Falcons' Garret Pearson hit two free throws to knot the score at 69 with seven seconds to go in regulation, and the teams headed to overtime after a 3-pointer by UW-Oshkosh's Alex Olson was off the mark at the buzzer.

Christensen opened the overtime scoring with a layup that made the score 71-69 at the 3:35 mark, but UW-Oshkosh's Ben Boots made a pair of free throws to tie the game at 71 with just under two minutes remaining.

Boots converted two more free throws to knot the score at 73 with 90 seconds left. He then stole the ball from Christensen and was fouled with less than 30 seconds left. Boots knocked down both free throws, giving UW-Oshkosh a 75-73 lead before Herum's heroics.

UW-Oshkosh missed all four of its field goal attempts in the overtime session, while UW-River Falls made 3 of 5 from the floor. Boots went 6-for-6 from the free throw line to account for all of the Titans' overtime points.

Christensen led all players with 31 points and nine rebounds. He made each of his five free throws and 11 of 15 shots from the floor, including 4 of 7 from beyond the 3-point arc.

Pearson added 14 points and seven rebounds for the Falcons, while Herum had nine points and two steals.

UW-River Falls (7-5, 1-0 WIAC) ended the game shooting 42.4 percent (25-59) from the field and 87 percent (20-23) from the charity stripe. The Falcons had a 40-37 edge in rebounds.

UW-Oshkosh (7-5, 0-1 WIAC) made 23 of 58 (39.7 percent) shots from the field and 22 of 33 (66.7 percent) free throws. The Titans had two less turnovers (14-12) than the Falcons.

UW-Oshkosh got out to a 14-9 lead less than seven minutes into the game before UW-River Falls reclaimed a 17-16 advantage just past the midway point of the first half.

A layup by Olson at the 6:16 mark provided the Titans with a 23-21 lead they wouldn't relinquish until the second period. A pair of free throws by Olson gave UW-Oshkosh its largest lead of seven points at 32-25 with just over three minutes left in the first half. Noone's 3-point basket provided the Titans with a 37-31 advantage at intermission.

UW-River Falls tallied the first six points of the second half to tie the score at 37, and a jumper by Pearson gave the Falcons their first lead in more than 11 minutes at 41-39 with just over 16 minutes remaining in the period.

The Titans used a 15-7 run to reclaim a 54-48 lead midway through the second half, but the Falcons responded by tallying 12 of the next 16 points for a 60-58 advantage at the 5:22 mark.

A 3-pointer by Christensen increased the UW-River Falls lead to 65-60 with 2:12 to go in the second stanza, but consecutive 3-pointers by Noone and Boots put UW-Oshkosh back in front, 66-65, with 54 seconds left in regulation.

Noone led four Titans in double figures with 20 points. Olson added 15 points for UW-Oshkosh while Boots had 13. Nick Olson chipped in 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

UW-Oshkosh plays the last of its seven straight road games on Saturday (Jan. 9) at UW-Platteville.