The University of Sioux Falls held off a late push from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls Saturday night to end the 2011 year on a 4 game home win streak. Senior center Skyler Bloch led all scorers with a career high 29 points and 11 rebounds to carry the Cougars to a 71-68 win over the Falcons. It was their first win over RF in the last three meetings.
With the win, the Cougars move to 4-1 in the month of December.
As expected, the game was close throughout the entire first half which featured six ties and 13 lead changes.
Bloch established his dominance right away, scoring the Cougars first six points of the game. He went on to finish with 17 points on 7-8 shooting from the floor in the first half.
A 3-pointer by Colin Utke and a quick two by the Falcon's leading scorer Shane Manor gave UW-RF their largest first half lead at four points. The score read 18-14 with 12 minutes to play in the half.
Following a timeout, sophomore guard Derek Brown responded with a 3-pointer and layup of his own, as USF recaptured the lead with 11:30 to play. The two teams would go back and forth the rest of the half, but the Cougars headed to the locker room up 38-36.
The Falcon's actually outshot the Cougars from the floor in the first half, where they converted 55.6% of their shoots, while USF made 45.2% of their attempts. The difference was at the line, where the Cougars knocked down seven of their eight first half free throw attempts. UW-RF went just 3-7 at the line in the first half.
UW-RF came out hot, making their first three shots of the second half to take over a 43-38 lead with 18:42 to play. It was their final lead of the game.
Over the next three minutes, USF answered as Keith Cutler nailed a huge three to cap a 7-0 scoring run by the Cougars and reclaim a two point lead at the 15 minute mark.
The Cougars continued to increase their lead during the next 10 minutes of the game, extending the margin to as high as 13 points.
USF seemed to have a "W" in the books as the scoreboard read 66-53 with 5:18 to play, but UW-RF was not done.
They put on the pressure, applying a full court press which led to six turnovers by USF in the final five minutes. The turnovers help spark a 9-1 run by the Falcons to close the gap to two points with 17 ticks on the clock.
USF had trouble inbounding the ball but used their timeouts effectively, forcing UW-RF to foul.
Bloch split a pair of free throws with seven seconds in the game to put the Cougars up 71-68, which would prove to be the final score as Brian Kimble's last second 3-point attempt came up short.
The Cougars saw improvement on the boards in the second half, specifically on the offensive glass where they tallied seven offensive rebounds which lead to 13 second chance points. USF held the advantage on the glass tonight, pulling down 37 rebounds, while UW-RF recorded 24.
Although USF outshot UW-RF in the second half, the Falcons maintained their advantage from the field where they made 48.1% in the game. USF finished 45.3% from the field.
Bloch had a career night, posting a career high 29 points and 11 rebounds with double digit scoring effort in each half. He showed efficiency, scoring on 10-13 shooting from the floor and 9-12 at the line.
The sophomore guard duo of Cutler and Brown also came up big for the Cougars. Brown finished with 16 points, shooting 4-8 from downtown. Cutler went 4-8 from the field and 2-4 from beyond the arc to total 15 points in the game.
USF will continue their home game stand Thursday (Jan.5) when they play host to the University of Minnesota-Morris. Tip-off is set for 7p.m.
