The River Falls boys basketball team began its 2022-23 regular season with a 60-39 non-conference defeat at home against La Crosse Central on Monday, Nov. 28, a Riverhawks team that finished runner-up in last year’s Division 2 State Championship game.

It was always going to be a tall task for the Wildcats to compete against and potentially defeat La Crosse Central, as the two programs are in completely different places to start the season. The Riverhawks are coming off of a state championship appearance and River Falls returns only one starter from last year’s roster.

Both teams got out to a slow start offensively through the first five minutes of action on Monday night. Around the 13-minute mark, River Falls held a 6-2 lead and looked to be in control of the game. That’s when La Crosse Central experimented with putting pressure on River Falls in the backcourt.

The Wildcats handled it fairly well at first and managed to keep the score close midway through the first half. However, when the Riverhawks went to a full-court trap late in the half, La Crosse Central went on a 15-4 run in the closing six minutes to take a 33-19 lead into the halftime intermission. River Falls head coach Zac Campbell spoke about the full-court pressure that gave his players issues.

“We have a lot of inexperienced guys with the basketball, we saw some (pressure) in our scrimmage against Northwestern, but they didn’t do it nearly as fast as La Crosse Central,” Campbell said. “In practice, we can’t simulate that (pressure). We just tear it apart against each other.”

Breaking the press requires quick passes and efficient use of the dribble. However, once River Falls’ ball handlers got fatigued against La Crosse Central, their eyes stopped scanning the floor for open teammates, and battling the pressure became even more challenging.

“When we got tired, our eyes went down rather than up the court,” Campbell said. “There were always guys up the court and we hit it a few times, but that was open up there more. There was just so much going on in front of us that our brains were just spinning.”

La Crosse Central continued to blitz River Falls in the backcourt throughout the beginning of the second half. The Riverhawks outscored the Wildcats 17-6 in the first eight minutes of the second half to take a commanding 50-25 lead over River Falls.

After a great six minutes to close the first half and a dominant eight-minute stretch to begin the second half, La Crosse Central cruised to a 60-39 victory over River Falls. Nearly all of La Crosse Central’s buckets came via River Falls turnovers. The Wildcats turned it over 23 times compared to La Crosse Central’s 16.

While the Big Rivers Conference is certainly expected to be strong again this season, very few teams on River Falls’ schedule will be as good as that Riverhawks squad. Coach Campbell spoke about playing such a talented team in the first game of the year with an inexperienced varsity roster.

“It’s good for our future for sure. It should help slow us down for games coming up,” Campbell said. “(La Crosse Central) is ranked seventh in the state right now and I’d have to assume they’re going to be a top-five team this year and potentially even toward the top of that.”

Although River Falls had more than its fair share of struggles, coach Campbell gave credit to sophomore point guard Preston Johnson for battling and competing against a talented, physical La Crosse Central defense in his first start as the ball-dominant guard.

“We put a whole lot of pressure on a sophomore point guard who ran a little bit of point guard last year, but mostly it was Michael Schurman (last year’s starter) who had the ball,” Campbell said. “(Preston Johnson) got to see a team tonight with a lot of pressure. For as frustrated as he got tonight, he did a pretty good job against a team that was playing in a state championship game last year.”

For coach Campbell, the 62-39 lopsided defeat – both in the box score and via eye-test on the floor – wasn’t an accurate representation of the team he has and what they’re capable of this season. He spoke about his team’s uncharacteristic mistakes against La Crosse Central.

“What you saw tonight were some uncharacteristic things because their minds were going so fast,” Campbell said. “We never got into anything comfortable. Our skill set is greater than what you saw, and that’s a credit to La Crosse Central. We’re only 10 practices in with most guys who haven’t played varsity minutes before. Give us 50 practices and we should be better with that.”

Junior guard Joey Butz led the Wildcats in scoring with 13 points on 5-9 shooting from the floor. Sophomore forward Eli Johnson had seven points and seniors Aidan Carufel and Erik Chapin each had five.

With the non-conference loss, River Falls drops to 0-1 for the season. The Wildcats will look to bounce back in the second game of the year on Friday, Dec. 2, when they host the New Richmond Tigers. That game is slated to begin at 7:15 p.m.