RIVER FALLS — In recent years, River Falls and Prescott have competed in girls and boys basketball doubleheaders. With two thriving and competitive programs, full crowds with fans of the girls and boys in attendance and home courts to be defended, the burner gets turned up a notch each year.

The most recent installment was Monday night in River Falls, with the Wildcats winning 71-57 in the boys game and 61-48 in the girls game.

The Wildcat boys started off a little slow on the defensive end, but Prescott was also simply hitting its shots. Three instantaneous threes fell for the Cardinals, and a few minutes into the game, Prescott led 14-4.

“Our execution early on wasn’t great. First half, I thought we did a decent job defensively after that start. Offensively, we just couldn’t pass,” Head Coach Zach Turpin said. “We got way too stagnant with the basketball, so something we’ve got to work on there. Really proud of the kids how they finished the game.”

River Falls made its counterattack to trail 32-29 at the half. The bigs were playing physically inside, complementing the guards on the fastbreak nicely. Posts Austin Stellrecht, Matt Tiffany and Chase Radloff have all taken strides over the summer to make the center position a strong one for River Falls.

“We’re still working, but I think Austin provides us with some physicality. I thought Chase had a couple good minutes there. I thought Matt Tiffany really played well for us coming off the bench, and just gave us a ton of energy,” Turpin said. “We’ve still got to work on some finishing stuff, but overall, they’ve come a little ways.”

The second half was much more firmly in control of River Falls, winning the frame 42-25 to secure a 14-point win. River Falls started to string some stops together late, avoiding the stressful finale.

“Prescott’s a great program. They’re always going to play well. They’re always super well-coached, play hard,” Turpin said. “It doesn’t matter how big their school is, it’s always a tough rivalry game.”

Brody Graetz played like a superstar, scoring 30 points on 8-of-17 shooting, snagging eight rebounds and sending out five assists. Tanner Bottolfson had 14 points with four three-pointers.

Prescott got 16 from Kobe Russell, 12 from Max Monteith and 12 from Jackson Matzek.

River Falls improved to 2-1 on the year with the win, and Prescott’s perfect record is no more, now at 4-1.

GBB

Following the win from the boys, the girls wanted to keep the good taste in the mouths of the fans, and they did.

“In terms of environment, boys game before, great crowd, Prescott being close, it is kind of turning into a really good rivalry,” Head Coach Ian Sticht said. “They’ve had some really good teams the last couple of years.”

The first half was truly back and forth, with the Wildcats coming out ahead 27-23. Playing against Prescott senior Violet Otto, who averages an unfathomable 28 points per game, Sticht tried to throw some interesting looks out there for the Prescott offense to face off against. He said Otto is as good as any individual they will take on all year.

Just like the boys, River Falls saw a significant increase in all-around play in the second half.

Wildcat senior Abigail Treichel, who entered Monday averaging 11.4 points per game and 14.6 rebounds, made her presence felt on both ends of the floor.

“She impacts the game in so many ways that don’t show up in stat sheets. She also impacts it in a lot of ways that do show up in stat sheets,” Sticht said. “Even tonight, just her help in covering how we were defending Otto, she’s just so long and athletic. She can do so many things… Unless you see her play, you do not understand the impact she makes.”

Treichel finished with 12 points and 19 rebounds on the day. At this point, double-doubles are simply a given.

Sophomore Eve Englebert scored 17 Monday, senior Hayley Quinn 16 and sophomore Rylan Sticht 11.

“Balance. All five starters, four of them were in double figures,” Sticht said.

Sticht said Quinn takes on a major workload defensively, so any time the sophomore can have solid scoring nights, it lifts offensive pressure off of Quinn.

River Falls is an impressive 7-1 in the early going and Prescott fell to 2-4 with the loss, but the record does not tell the whole story after a bit of a non-conference gauntlet early for the Cardinals.