By Reagan Hoverman

The Friday night, Jan. 14, matchup between River Falls and Chippewa Falls (Chi-Hi) was a game that Wildcats head coach Zac Campbell described as a struggle due to the lack of execution throughout the game, despite the River Falls 47-45 win to improve to 12-1 for the season.

In the eyes of coach Campbell, a win is a win. However, the lack of execution for River Falls made the Friday night road game a lot closer than many would have anticipated, especially with River Falls facing a 26-18 halftime deficit. The Wildcats entered the game with an 11-1 record, including a 5-1 record in Big Rivers Conference matchups.

Chi-Hi entered the game with a 1-11 record, including a 1-4 record in Big Rivers action this season. What was expected to be an easy win for River Falls quickly became a grudge match which gave the hometown Chi-Hi crowd – and the team – signs of life as the game progressed.

Jackson Gugel’s driving layup with ten minutes left in the first half gave Chi-Hi a 10-9 lead over the Wildcats. The River Falls offense continued to struggle in the middling and late minutes of the first half on the road. After Kansas Smith’s pair of free throws with three minutes left in the first half, Chi-Hi led River Falls 2113.

The offensive struggles and aforementioned lack of execution by the Wildcats contributed to Chi-Hi’s 26-18 halftime lead. Head coach Campbell spoke about what contributed to the lethargic opening 18 minutes on the road.

“We came out very flat and allowed Chippewa (Falls) to control the pace of the first half,” Campbell said. “Offensively, we weren’t disciplined in our execution and when shots aren’t failing, that execution becomes more glaring.”

Three minutes into the second half, the Wildcats had cut the Chi-Hi lead to four points after a pair of layups by senior Michael Schurman and a steal and transition layup by senior guard Jack Hirstein. Those opening scores by a pair of senior guards sparked what became a River Falls second-half comeback.

With just over five minutes left in the second half, the Wildcats retook the lead for the first time since the 13-minute mark of the first half after a layup by senior Ethan Campbell to make it 3635 in favor of River Falls. Less than one minute later, already leading by one, sophomore Joey Butz took a page out of Michael Jordan’s playbook when he hit a baseline turnaround jump shot, was fouled, and made a three-point play the old-fashioned way.

The high-energy play by Butz gave River Falls a four-point lead with four minutes to play, in addition to it forcing a timeout by Chi-Hi head coach Jason Proue. River Falls carried the momentum to a 47-45 win to improve to 12-1 for the season. Zac Campbell spoke about the second half of the game.

“The second half we controlled the tempo throughout and had plenty of opportunities to stretch the game out further but missed a couple of good looks at the rim and a number of free throws that would have allowed us to put the game away earlier,” Zac Campbell said.

Perhaps the most glaring issue in the box score for River Falls was the shooting percentages in all aspects of the game. The Wildcats finished the night shooting 40% from the floor overall, including 50% from inside the arc, 16.7% from behind the threepoint line, as well as 52% at the free throw line. Zac Campbell addressed how the shooting was impacted by the lack of executing the game plan.

“Our struggles were due to lack of execution,” Campbell said. “Our screen game and purposeful cuts were very poor. This took us off of rhythm and we ended up taking a lot of shots that we don’t practice in an effort to try to generate some form of offense.”

Despite being off script for a majority of the game, River Falls escaped with the win, tallied victory number 12 of the season, and is in prime position for a high seed in the playoffs. While Campbell is pleased with the overall record, he stated they have to stay focused on the regular season.

“At the end of the season we will look back at our record this time and be extremely pleased,” Zac Campbell said. “However, if we get caught up in that game right now, we will pay the price in the coming weeks. We have areas that we are not executing as well as we did a month ago and need to get back to playing smarter and more fundamental basketball to be our best come season’s end.”

This week, River Falls will compete in two games that will likely be used as a measuring stick for the Wildcats and their potential success the rest of the way this season. The first game is on the road against La Crosse Central, a team that Zac Campbell calls one of the best teams in the state. Then on Friday, River Falls travels to Eau Claire Memorial to take on the fourth-ranked team in the state.

“This Tuesday at La Crosse Central is a great opportunity for us to travel to one of the top teams in the state to test ourselves,” Zac Campbell said. “I'm not sure we could find much of a better opportunity to prepare for traveling to Memorial on Friday.”

The Wildcats’ lone loss of the season came against Eau Claire Memorial on Tuesday, Dec. 21, a game in which the Wildcats were missing senior guard Michael Schurman who was out with an illness. Zac Campbell previewed the Friday night game which is bound to be a heavyweight fight.

“They jumped on us early and were able to take us out of our offensive actions last time we played them,” Zac Campbell said. “Having Michael (Schurman) should allow us to be better in all three phases this time around. Important to note they return a 6’7” scholarship-type player in LJ Wells this time around, as well. Ultimately, our fundamentals will need to be great and our response to adversity will have to be mature. If those two things happen, we give ourselves a chance to tie Memorial atop the conference.”

As Zac Campbell alluded, if River Falls were to win the Friday night game against Eau Claire Memorial, they would be tied atop the Big Rivers Conference standings with a little over one month remaining until the playoffs begin. Both the La Crosse Central and Eau Claire Memorial games are slated to begin at 7:15 p.m.

Senior Wildcat guard Michael Schurman takes the ball up the floor and begins to run the offense during River Falls’ 4745 victory against Chi-Hi on Friday night. Photo by Joseph Back