The River Falls Wildcats lost to the Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes on Tuesday night in Eau Claire by a score of 66-48 and won against the New Richmond Tigers 52-38.

It was the Wildcats’ first taste of Big Rivers Conference play, and they came up short to start the season at 0-1 after going 1-1 in non-conference play thus far.

Things got off on the wrong foot right away as the Old Abes pushed out to a 7-0 lead enroute to taking a commanding 17-4 lead with 9:30 remaining in period one. That would change rapidly though as by the 2:30 mark, the Wildcats would put an emphatic end to a 14-6 run of their own with a three-pointer by Hayley Quinn. Kaelin Jalowitz added a three-pointer right before the buzzer to River Falls’ resume on the night to bring the deficit to a manageable 27-21 going into the half.

Another three-pointer by Quinn early in the second period brought the Wildcats within four at 31-27, but that’s as close as they would ever get. The Old Abes outscored River Falls 34-13 throughout the bulk of this period to break the game wide open and bring the score to 65-40 with 3:00 remaining in the game. The Wildcats went on an 8-1 run to make the final box score a little more respectable, but they still lost by 18.

Friday’s game was completely the opposite, however.

River Falls couldn’t have been much hotter right out of the gate than they were against the Tigers. They surged ahead to a massive lead behind some great all-around play. There were multiple steals that turned into fast breaks including two by Emily Van Ausdal and one by Jordan Schwantz, great defensive blocks and rebounds and all this while the whole team was hitting shot after shot, including three-pointers from Quinn and Addy Timm.

The Wildcats were also playing very tight coverage throughout. New Richmond continuously passed the ball around the perimeter looking for purchase, but there was none to be found anywhere. Midway through the first period, it was already 18-4.

The Tigers continued to look outmatched while the Wildcats scored at will. With 6:12 left to play, it was 24-5. River Falls hit a little bit of a wall in the final minutes, though, as New Richmond outscored them 9-3 to bring the score to 28-14 going into the half.

A fast break by Schwantz opened the second half, and shortly thereafter, a three-pointer by Keyah Strop pushed the lead out to 18 at 39-21. The Tigers just kept hanging around, though, and refused to go away quietly. With 6:48 remaining in regulation, they had tightened the lead to 10 at 39-29.

Some good defense and timely shots allowed the Wildcats to stretch that lead out just a little bit in the final minutes, and they took the victory by double digits at 52-38.

It was a nice bounce back game for River Falls, who are now 1-1 in conference play early in the season. As a team, the Wildcats were surprisingly inefficient after the opening stretch where they looked like the ’92 Dream Team, finishing with a 34% success rate from the field and just 13% on three-pointers, albeit while converting on a positive 69% of free throws.

Quinn and Schwantz were the standout co-players of the game in this one. Quinn scored 15 points while adding seven rebounds and three steals, and Schwantz scored 14, drew four fouls that turned into points from the free throw line, and also chipped in nine rebounds and two steals.

Schwantz, who is one of the seniors and a focal point of this offense, says that although the start was fantastic, they started rushing their shots, and that’s something they’re working on.

“Right now we’re focusing a lot on defense and just getting good open shots. Sometimes the first shot is good, but a lot of times it’s just a quick loss of possession,” Schwantz said. “We lost two really good seniors from last year who were leaders, so our seniors are trying to step up this year and lead the team. We have a lot of good players. We're kind of a quiet team, but we all play well together, like tonight. Our confidence level is high.”

Head Coach Ian Sticht says their gameplay wasn’t perfect, but overall, he’s happy with the performance.

“New Richmond did a good job defensively to make it a little bit harder for us. They took some things away, things that we got the first half, but we didn't get the second half,” Sticht said. “We shot really well to start the game, but we had a stretch in the middle where we were taking any shot we got. The quality of our shot went up as the game went on, though, and I feel like at the end we had some really good possessions.”

River Falls caught quite a few penalties in this one, but Sticht says that’s the product of playing tight coverage and aggressive basketball.

“We're trying to get more intensity on defense and turn up the pressure a little bit. We try not to get too much trouble with fouls and turn up the pressure at the same time,” Sticht said. “We were walking that line tonight for sure. Especially in that first half where they only had three field goals.”

From here, the Wildcats will travel to Baldwin-Woodville to play a non-conference game against the Blackhawks on Tuesday at 7 p.m. before playing a BRC game on Friday at 7:15 p..m against Hudson, last year’s conference champion. They will also make an appearance at the UW-River Falls Tournament on Saturday where they will play against Northwestern at 4:15 p.m.