The River Falls High School boys basketball team suffered an 85-81 loss in overtime on the road against the Chippewa Falls Cardinals on Tuesday, Dec. 20. The defeat dropped the Wildcats to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in Big Rivers Conference action.

In a game where the Wildcats have four players score in double digits, they shoot 56% from beyond the three-point line on 25 attempts, the team scores a season-high 81 points, and they commit the lowest number of turnovers of the year, head coach Zac Campbell would expect to win the game. That didn’t happen against Chi-Hi on Tuesday night.

The Cardinals’ overtime victory against River Falls was ultimately the result of efficient shooting and dominance on the glass – both offensively and defensively. A 17-point lead seven minutes into the first half certainly helped the Cardinals secure a win too. Coach Campbell spoke about getting beat on the glass by a wide margin and how it was the deciding factor in his team’s loss.

“Nearly impossible to win games with those numbers,” Campbell said. “Which is why when we shoot it at the percentage we did along with a season-low turnover margin by a longshot, we still weren’t able to secure a win. Those numbers are not indicative of how our program operates and we have addressed that wholeheartedly during this time away. I can assure you that won’t happen again this season for us.”

Chippewa Falls led the Wildcats 9-6 through the first three minutes of the game. Neither team had a true offensive rhythm going until Chi-Hi senior Mason Monarski hit a contested three-pointer from the top of the key to make it a 12-6 ballgame. His deep three-pointer served as the catalyst for the Cardinals’ first scoring barrage of the night.

It continued throughout the next several possessions when Chi-Hi senior forward Jackson Tomczak hit two deep three-pointers as the Cardinals began pulling away from River Falls. By the time the scoring barrage ended, the Cardinals had gone on a 17-2 run in just over three minutes, which gave them a 26-9 lead midway through the first half.

Chippewa Falls is a team that returned their top six scorers from last year’s roster. Their talented shooting paired with an additional year of experience makes them one of the most dangerous teams in the Big Rivers Conference this season. Coach Campbell spoke about what went wrong during that 17-2 run.

“Chippewa is a group who is extremely good in the catch/shoot game,” Campbell said. “Our goal was to run them off of their staggers and get back to their pop action in hopes of getting them to put the ball on the floor for our gap defenders to provide assistance. Unfortunately, our weakside defense was taking bad angles and a step or two late consistently and they made us pay.”

River Falls is a team that looks to generate offense by pushing the pace in transition. When Chippewa Falls started hitting shots, the Wildcats couldn’t get into transition which limited offensive opportunities and led to a scoring drought.

The Wildcats put together a solid final nine minutes of the first half and chipped away at Chi-Hi’s lead. River Falls went into the halftime intermission trailing by just 11 points, 47-36. Coach Campbell spoke about his team limiting the damage and getting into halftime with the game still within reach.

“The boys had a great response to a situation that could’ve gotten really ugly,” Campbell said. “We put ourselves in a poor spot by getting loose from our game plan and we hope we learned a lesson of discipline to not have to put ourselves back in spots like that in the future.”

With 11 minutes left in the second half, River Falls trailed 58-45 and was beginning to run out of time. Over the next four minutes, the Wildcats went on a scoring run and cut the deficit to four points, 62-58, which forced a Chi-Hi timeout.

With just under five minutes to play, River Falls grabbed its first lead of the game, 65-64, when sophomore center Eli Johnson made an up-and-under layup. The Wildcats and Cardinals battled to a tie at the end of regulation and went to overtime knotted up 71-71.

Chippewa Falls outscored River Falls 1410 in overtime to secure the aforementioned 85-81 victory. Coach Campbell spoke about the loss and what went wrong defensively.

“We are okay with playing up-tempo so we’ve never looked at the final score as an indicator of our defense,” Campbell said. “We use points per shot as a major indicator of what types of action we are allowing and the PPS for Chippewa was higher than any game this season speaking to the poor execution we had on the defensive end.”

With losses against Eau Claire Memorial and Chippewa Falls, the Wildcats are on a two-game losing streak. However, the process is getting better. River Falls is competitive and the shooting is starting to become what the coaching staff thought it could be. Campbell spoke about his team’s flashes of greatness.

“We are moving the ball much more efficiently and shooting it at a level we have seen from this group,” Campbell said. “Those two areas were poor to start the year and we were surviving on effort and energy to get us wins. We have held leads late in six of our seven games. We hope that as the calendar turns you are starting to see us tying all of these phases of our game together.”

River Falls is back in action on Tuesday, Dec. 27, when they face Tomah at the Menomonie Holiday Classic. The tip-off for that game is slated for 1:15 p.m.