The River Falls Wildcats defeated the Eau Claire Memorial Old Abes by a score of 68-66 on Friday in Eau Claire. It was a must win game for the second place Wildcats (6-2) who did everything they needed to do to keep their conference championship hopes alive by handing first place Eau Claire Memorial (7-1) their first loss of the season.

River Falls won the tipoff, and Joey Butz made quick work of the possession, putting it through the net for three points. The Abes countered right away with a couple 3’s of their own enroute to an 8-0 run as things got off to a fast start for the home team, prompting an early River Falls timeout to reset.

Butz got things back on track for the Wildcats with a fastbreak for two points, and Preston Johnson followed that up with a three-pointer that pulled them within four at 14-10 with 13:00 remaining in the first period.

The competition was fierce from the jump, and River Falls was being constantly pressed on offense. Meanwhile, the Abes went on a tear, sinking every deep shot that came their way. The Wildcats held their ground by grinding out points any way they could get them, and at the 10:00 mark, it was 20-16 in favor of Memorial.

As midperiod came and went, River Falls pulled within one. There were some miscues by both teams, but a hook shot by Brody Graetz tied the game with 8:00 remaining at 21-all. The Wildcats had overcome the early deficit, but the lead changes came quickly over the next minutes.

River Falls took a 26-23 advantage, but Eau Claire immediately took it back with a layup and a steal. With 5:00 remaining, it was 27-26.

Play between these top 2 teams was very physical, but it was the Abes who kept getting looks from the perimeter while the Wildcats had to make do with field goals as there was no room to shoot being found on the outside. This came to an abrupt end, however, as a scoring spree beginning with a Jonah Severson hook shot and ending with back-to-back shots from downtown by Johnson and Butz gave River Falls a 36-31 lead going into the final 2:00 of play in the opening frame.

Whereas Eau Claire was virtually perfect early on from the arc, the back half of the period was characterized by miss after miss on big fly’s. Points continued to come hard for River Falls who had to earn every shot all period. Nonetheless, they still found themselves with a nice 38-32 lead going into the half.

Things were a little uneven for both teams to start the second half, and 5:00 later, the score differential was essentially the same at 42-37.

After missing two three-pointers in a row, Eau Claire got their third rebound and put it in from under the net for two. A Wildcat penalty gave the Abes the ball back, and they used it to pull within one at 44-43 with 11:00 to go. Then the lead changes started happening rapidly again.

Butz and Johnson each sank baskets while Memorial sank a wide open three and made some moves inside to add on to their total. The rapid-fire shots went on until a penalty stopped the clock at 8:40 with the Wildcats up 51-48.

The penalty served to slow things down, and tough, physical defense permeated the next couple minutes as River Falls held on to their three-point lead with some considerable effort. At 6:56, it was 53-50, but the needle would start to flicker again as both teams jockeyed for the advantage.

With 5:00 coming and going off the clock, Johnson contributed with a pair of important plays. First, he made a nice move pushing inside to set up a jump shot in front of the basket to regain a three-point lead, and then he added on by working himself into an open lane, rushing to the basket and converting the shot to make it 59-54 with 3:49 to go.

Eau Claire thought it prudent at this time to call a timeout to try to get back on track.

Hayden Bottolfson responded by draining a three-pointer straightaway to increase the lead to eight. This was followed by some timely misses by the Abes, a gift which the Wildcats promptly capitalized on.

With 2:00 to go, things got really interesting. A six-point lead quickly suddenly shrunk to a three-point lead, and with 1:16 to go, it was 62-59. An Eau Claire timeout was followed by a tough drive by Butz as he got fouled and hit the court after a successful layup pushed the lead back to five with under a minute remaining.

The Abes took a quick two points back, but nothing could be quicker than the overhand ¾ court Hail Mary the Wildcats executed on a throw in with 30 seconds to go, a play that ended with a two-point basket to keep the status quo. Eau Claire immediately answered with a clutch three-pointer, though, and they pulled within two at 66-64 with just 0:20 on the clock.

The Wildcats began making an obvious effort to waste time and run out the time while still putting themselves in position to score. With possession of the ball in their best player’s hands, the Abes fouled Butz to stop the clock and send him to the line. In true form, with the game on the line, Butz took several deep breathes and drained them both.

Eau Claire did their job, wasting no time in putting the ball through the hoop for two, and just moments later, they managed to get the ball back with just 0:04 left on the clock down by just two points. A three-pointer away from a victory and a field goal away from overtime, the Abes had the opportunity to put the championship virtually out of reach for the rest of the conference.

They passed it in. River Falls spread out and ran some interference, immediately blocking the Abe player with ball, causing him to lose control of it.

With 0:01 remaining, Memorial picked it up at half court and put up a shot that looked like a miraculous buzzer beater victory for the home team as it flew towards the net. The distance was right, but the trajectory was slightly off as it sailed mere inches wide, and the Wildcats took home a 68-66 victory.

It was a rematch of possibly the most entertaining game of the year where River Falls overcame a 20+ point deficit but lost in overtime. In that contest, Butz admirably put the team on his shoulders, and it was his strong shooting that propelled their amazing comeback and pushed the game into extras. The difference this time around was the emergence of Preston Johnson and strong contributing performances by Eli Johnson and Bottolfson, all of whom have been a big factor in the Wildcats’ successes.

On the night, Butz had a characteristically big game scoring 22 points despite the Abes’ overt effort to limit his opportunities. Preston Johnson was not far behind , going 8-10 from the field and hitting 3-4 shots from the perimeter enroute to scoring 19 points on the night.

Johnson chalks up the team’s well-rounded play to good practices building their confidence and says they’re in a good place to finish the season strong.

“Obviously, this is a big win against a really good team just like we’re going to see in the playoffs. This is a sectional final team, that’s what it’s going to be like. So, this one is huge for us, but we’re going to keep practicing, keep improving and we’re right back out there on Monday,” Johnson said. “I think this is the best team we’ve had. We have the shooters, we have the defensive players and I think this is our year to make a run.”

Head Coach Zac Campbell says the team executed their gameplan well when it counted most and needs to remain focused on the games in front of them.

“Our goal of game was to get them off the three-point line but maintain defensive position to force contested mid-range jumpers. We didn’t execute well right away, but if you look at the first five minutes and the last five minutes, we executed really well late,” Campbell said. “We put ourselves in a place a couple weeks back that we need to win out to have a shot at the conference title. We still have no margin for error in that area, but our mindset will remain the same in that we need to stay present daily and not get lost in the shuffle.”  

With this win, the Wildcats are now just one game back in the BRC standings. With three home games on deck, all against Big Rivers opponents, this will be an important week of basketball for a team that’s in the hunt for a conference championship.

The first of these three contests comes on Tuesday when they host the 1-7 Menomonie Mustangs for a makeup game at 5:45 p.m. Then comes tilts against the 5-4 New Richmond Tigers on Thursday and the 6-2 Hudson Raiders on Saturday, both at 7:15 p.m.

Saturday’s game against the Raiders figures to be a full house as their fans are always well represented at River Falls home games, especially with both teams currently tied at 6-2 in the conference standings.

An interesting caveat to this is what happens on Thursday when Hudson hosts Eau Claire Memorial. Assuming that all three teams win their games against lower ranking opponents earlier in the week, a Raider win over Memorial would move River Falls into first place via the creation of a three-way tie at the top of the conference, while a Hudson loss moves them back in the standings and leaves the Wildcats alone in second place, still just one game back.

Things are coming to a head entering the final two weeks and change of the regular season, and this time next week fans could be talking about their first place River Falls Wildcats.