Box Score Box Score
RIVER FALLS, Wis. – After trailing by as many as 19 points in the second half, the St. Scholastica men's basketball team opened up its season in dramatic fashion, rallying back to force overtime and then finally putting away the University of Wisconsin-River Falls 95-91 in double overtime tonight at the Karges Center.
The win was also the 100th victory for CSS Head Coach David Staniger. Staniger is the first CSS men's basketball coach to achieve 100 wins at the school.
#Chris Hamers# (So.-Onamia, Minn.) hit a 3-pointer to begin the game as CSS was up 3-0. The Saints were up 9-8 later in the first half until the Falcons went on an 8-0 run to take a 16-9 lead with 12 minutes left in the first half. The Saints cut the lead to five after a #Troy Miller# (Sr.-Stillwater, Minn.) lay-up with five minutes to go before halftime, but the Falcons responded with a 12-3 run and had a 14-point lead with one minute left in the half. The Falcons went into halftime with a 42-30 lead.
The Saints shot 39-percent in the first half, while the Falcons shot 42-percent. The Saints were 5-for-9 on 3-point attempts. River Falls had 14 offensive rebounds in the half, and out-scored the Saints 14-4 on second-chance points.
The second half did not start out great for the Saints as the Falcons extended their lead to 19 points with 14 minutes left in regulation. Over the next nine minutes, CSS would out-score the Falcons 29-10, including a 14-1 run to tie the score at 67-67 with a little less than five minutes to go. #Mike MacDonald# (Sr.-Two Harbors, Minn.) had nine points during that span.
The Falcons went back up by five, but a #Bryan Johnson# (Fr.-Randolph, Wis.) 3-pointer and a Chris Hamers (Onamia, Minn./Onamia HS) jumper with five seconds left sent the game into overtime with the score at 74-74.
CSS jumped out to a four-point lead in overtime, but the Falcons rallied back to tie it up with 2:23 remaining. Mike MacDonald (Two Harbors, Minn./Two Harbors HS) hit a lay-up to give St. Scholastica the lead with two minutes left. The Falcons hit a jumper to tie it back up at 82-82 to send the game into a second overtime.
In the second overtime, the Saints went up by six after a #Danny Schmitz# (So.-Hinckley, Minn./Hinckley-Finlayson) lay-up. The Falcons quickly got back into the game and tied at 91-91 with 1:41 left. Troy Miller (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater HS) then closed out the game for CSS he got his own rebound and put the Saints out front with a lay-up. Then after grabbing a defensive rebound he put the game out of reach with two free throws as the Saints prevailed 95-91.
The St. Scholastica bench was the difference as it out-scored the River Falls bench 53-32, including 29-5 in the second half. CSS shot 54-percent from the field in the game, while the Falcons shot 43-percent.
The Saints had seven of its 10 players that saw action score in double-figures. Troy Miller (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater HS) led all scorers with 18 points. Danny Schmitz (Hinckley, Minn./Hinckley-Finlayson HS) and Mike MacDonald (Two Harbors, Minn./Two Harbors HS) each had 15 points off the bench. #Jesse Taylor# (Sr.-Superior, Wis./Maranatha Baptist) and Bryan Johnson (Randolph, Wis./Randolph HS) added 12 points, while #Justin Nelson# (Sr.-Duluth, Minn./Marshall) had 11 points and Chris Hamers (Onamia, Minn./Onamia HS) had 10 points. Troy Miller (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater HS) also had a team-high nine rebounds and five assists. Wade Guerin had 17 points to lead River Falls.
The last time the Saints played in a double overtime game was during the 2001-02 season when they defeated Northwestern College 94-93. This was the second victory by St. Scholastica over UW-River Falls in 12 meetings and the first away from Duluth. This was the first overtime game in the series.
The Saints will have their home opener this Friday when they host twin-port rival University of Wisconsin-Superior at 7:30 p.m. at Reif Gym.
