The River Falls Wildcats defeated the Chippewa Falls Cardinals by a score of 72-52 in River Falls on Tuesday, Dec. 19.

After losing a heartbreaker in overtime in their home opener, this was one that River Falls needed to win, and they did it in resounding fashion.

River Falls got the lead right away as they pushed out to a four-point lead early on. Hayden Bottolfson showed up in the box score for the Wildcats, hitting a wide open three-pointer from the corner to bring the lead to seven at 11-4.

After that, things stayed close until near the end of the first period. At 24-18 with 2:05 on the clock, the Wildcats’ leading scorer Joey Butz drained another wide open three-pointer from the same spot on the corner as Bottolfson to make it a nine-point lead. Cody Olson immediately got a steal and Preston Johnson added another three-pointer to what became an eight-point run for River Falls as they took a commanding 14-point lead.

Ultimately, River Falls went into the half only up by nine at 32-23, but that gap got wider coming out of the break. This process was aided by back-to-back steals by Bottolfson and Johnson, as the Wildcats fought to maintain a double-digit lead.

Then something crazy happened that you wouldn’t believe just by looking at the final score. The Cardinals came back.

Over the next 5:30 minutes, they nearly did to River Falls what they just did to Eau Claire last time out, outscoring the Wildcats 15-6 and nearly tying it up at 49-46 with 7:50 remaining in regulation. The Wildcats answered the call to action, though, and they went on a run of their own going after a Johnson three-pointer sparked a rally.

They put seven unanswered points on the board, and Butz punctuated that with a steal and a fast break for two more to make it 58-46. This seemed to take all the momentum that Chippewa Falls had been building and shifted it entirely to the home team. The Wildcats outscored them 14-6 over the final five minutes of the game, including a 10-0 run to finish it out and bring the final score to 72-52.

River Falls piled up stats in this one including 35 rebounds, 14 assists and seven steals. Their shooting percentages were good across the board, and they had four players score double digit points.

Most notably of these players was Butz, who had another great game with 24 points, including going 5-11 on three-pointers and 7-7 at the line. Eli Johnson also had a nice game putting up a double-double going 6-7 from the field and 3-4 at the line to go along with his team leading 11 assists. Preston Johnson and Bottolfson were the other two who scored 10 or more points.

With this Big Rivers opponent defeated, the Wildcats (3-1) maintain their position at second in the conference. They will have three straight non-conference matchups to finish out the year before getting a must win game against Rice Lake (3-1) at home on Jan. 2.

The three non-conference games are against Holmen on Friday at home at 7:15, and then they will play a tournament in Menomonie on back-to-back days on Dec. 28 at 2:30 and Dec. 29 at 1 p.m.

Dunn-St. Croix: Spring Valley

The Spring Valley Cardinals defeated the Somerset Spartans by a score of 73-70 in Spring Valley on Thursday night.

It was a non-conference win, but it was also a good one against a tough team from the Middle Border.

Spring Valley jumped out to a 12-6 lead early, going two-by-two behind some solid play in the defensive zone. The Cardinals’ top scorer Cade Stasiek added another two onto that after a nice feint got the defenders out of his way to make the jump shot. He made a couple of these tricksome moves in the first period that consistently kept the red birds playing with a lead.

The first three-point action didn’t happen until the middle of the period, and it actually came at the free throw line. As Stasiek made an impressive hook shot over two defenders from in front of the basket for two, he got fouled. He then stepped up to the charity stripe and sunk the free throw to make it a 19-11 lead.

This opened the flood gates as Kaden Robelia joined Stasiek, sinking a three from the top right corner of the key to make it 22-13. This run inspired the Spartans to call a timeout to talk things over.

With under 3:00 left to play in the first, Jameson Bauer worked his way relatively open, and at about five feet beyond the top of the arc, he took the shot and didn’t miss. Two drives later and Stasiek did the same thing from the same spot and the Cardinals pulled out to a 37-20 advantage.

That’s when the Spartans made their move, going 9-2 over the final two minutes to cut the deficit to 10 going into the half.

The Cardinals came out hot in the second period, erasing the ground that Somerset had made before adding on to the difference. Bauer went on a tear of hitting three-pointers, and they cruised out to a 23-point lead at 59-36.

And that’s when things went completely sideways for Spring Valley.

Somerset scored nine in a row before the Cardinals scored again on a fast break by, who else, Bauer. The Spartans promptly went on another 9-0 run, and just like that, the score was 61-54.

The Cardinals tightened things up, but Somerset refused to go away, continuously closing the gap as the final minutes melted off the clock towards zero. With less than a minute left to play it was 69-62. The Spartans pulled within two right at the end, but Spring Valley held on to win at 73-70.

Spring Valley is now 6-2 on the season and are tied for first with Durand-Arkansaw in the Dunn-St. Croix Conference, each undefeated at 3-0.

The Cardinals will play a tournament at Just a Game Fieldhouse in Wisconsin Dells to finish out the 2023 portion of their season before resuming DSC conference play on Friday, Jan. 5 when they will host Mondovi. Tip off for that game is at 7:15 p.m.