The River Falls Wildcats defeated the Menomonie Mustangs on Friday in River Falls by a score of 64-37 and then took out the New Richmond Tigers 77-50.

It was River Falls’ second game in a row against the Mustangs, and it finished with a nearly identical score as when they faced them last week (61-37). The Wildcats were looking to come out and make a big statement in Round 1, and they did just that with a definitive victory where they were able to bench their top shooters for the final 6:00 and change with the game well in hand.

The story of the semifinal round offensively was Joey Butz, who led the rest of the team by a large margin at 24 points, and the well-rounded supporting performances of Jonah Severson and Preston Johnson. However, the whole team played well across the board, as you could guess from the score.

The regional final round was much the same against New Richmond.

River Falls jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead early on, and they would never relinquish that. After 7:00 of play, they had already increased that lead to 11 points at 15-4. Their lead hovered right around there for a good portion of the opening period, but towards the end of it, they had increased it to as much as 19.

The Tigers pushed back a little, but the Wildcats still went into halftime up by 14 at 38-24.

The second half was a near carbon copy of the first as the Wildcats wisely refused to take their foot off the gas. Over the first 8:00 of play, they increased their lead to almost two dozen at 55-32.

Towards the end, with the game well in hand, River Falls once again gave some of their reserve players some valuable experience and playing time on a pretty big stage, and in the end, they got the victory over the Tigers after outpacing them to the tune of a whopping 77-50.

Once again, Butz paced the team in points, putting up 33 while converting an astonishing 20 of 23 shots on the night including going 13-16 in field goals, 6-6 on free throws and 1-1 on three-pointers. Hayden Bottolfson was second in points and rebounds with 14 and six respectively, and Eli Johnson had a big game as well, completing the double-double with 10 points and a massive 16 rebounds.

Butz, who is the recipient of this year’s Big Rivers Conference Player of the Year Award, reached another echelon of success on Saturday night as well. Beyond winning the regional tournament, he also simultaneously broke the Wildcats’ all-time record for three-pointers.

In the midst of all of this, Butz says he just wants to feel like he did his best.

“I just I want to regret nothing and leave it on the court. I don't want to look back in 10 years and think I could have done more or that I could have done something differently. I just want to play the hardest I possibly can, and then I won't be upset no matter the result,” Butz said.

Coaches always talk about how hard it is to beat a conference opponent three times in a season, and Head Coach Zac Campbell says they addressed this early on Saturday morning at practice and then again prior to the game Saturday night. 

“It's difficult to beat a similar talent level team three times because the team that's lost twice tends to have a higher hunger level and more focus going into the competition. We were clear that we needed to exceed their level of hunger on Saturday evening,” Campbell said.

Looking forward, River Falls will go on the road to face the Wausau East Lumberjacks, and in contrast to New Richmond’s third defeat at the Wildcats’ hands, it’s a team they haven’t seen before.

“Every team brings something different. East runs a number of different defenses at you and tests your ability to take care of the ball through different looks. Offensively they are very athletic and have a guard who can go win a game with his athleticism and ability to score the ball from all three levels,” Campbell said. “Offensively, I feel it's nicer to see a team you haven't seen before, however, defensively it provides challenges with trying to defend certain actions/personnel for the first time.”

From a coaching standpoint, Campbell says they focus a lot on being mentally ready for the big games and big moments.

“We talk a lot on being present, and we’ve talked daily throughout this playoff run about three areas: competitiveness, execution, and resilience. If we stay in these three areas, we don't allow ourselves to veer off path in our playoff run,” Campbell said.

It’s been two blowout games for River Falls in the first couple rounds of the playoffs, and they will look to make it a third this Thursday when they travel to the neutral site of Eau Claire North to play Wausau East in the semifinal round of sectional play at 7 p.m.

The Lumberjacks had a regular season record of 19-7, but have proved very beatable of late. In their last 10 games of the season, they went 5-5, and both of their regional round games were won by close margins as well. In fact, they won their last game of regionals over Rice Lake by two points, and they were a team that finished sixth in the conference after going 6-8, albeit with an overall record of 15-11.

All this bodes well for the Wildcats as they prepare for Thursday night. Should they win in Eau Claire, they will move on to the final round on Saturday when they would travel to Marshfield and compete to become sectional champion and get back to the state tournament for the first time since the 2019-2020 season.