Kittel's career-high 30 points leads CUW to season opening win

MEQUON, Wis. – Concordia University Wisconsin started off the 2015-16 campaign with a bang, defeating UW-River Falls 98-91 in Saturday night's season opener.

THE BASICS
- Final Score: Concordia Wisconsin 98, UW-River Falls 91
- Location: R. John Buuck Fieldhouse – Mequon, Wis.
- Records: Concordia Wisconsin 1-0; UW-River Falls 0-1 

HOW IT HAPPENED
- UW-River Falls came out of the gates using their strength inside to jump out to an early lead, but it was junior guard Eric Kittel (Brillion, Wis.) who scored the first 12 of points for CUW, to tie UW-River Falls early on in the game.
- Midway through the first half with both teams were battling back and forth and with CUW trailing by one, sophomore guard Josh Erickson (Manitowoc, Wis.) hit a deep three-pointer to give CUW the lead. From that moment on, CUW would not trail for the remainder of the game.
- CUW's bench would provide a big spark for the team in the first half, scoring 23 points led by Erickson and senior guard Trevor Krizenesky (Brillion, Wis) who each had eight points in the first half.
- Coming out in the second half, UW-Rivers Falls would cut CUW's lead to two, but Concordia put together an impressive 12-2 run to rebuild their lead. The run was led by senior guard Taron Edwards (Racine, Wis.) who scored seven of the 12 points.
- CUW would lead by as much as 20 in the second half and despite a late comeback attempt by UW-River Falls, CUW would use some clutch free-throw shooting to maintain their lead and seal the victory.
- UW-River Falls was led by Garrett Pearson, who scored a team high 23 points.
- Concordia shot an impressive 40.0 percent (14M-35A) from three point range on the night and also shot 82.8 percent (24M-29A) from the charity stripe.
- Kittel would finish the night with a game high 30 points and seven made three pointers, which are both new career highs for the junior guard.

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
- Edwards set a new career high in points scored with 19 and shot an impressive 91.7 percent (11M-12A) from the free-throw line. Defensively he also added a career-high six steals to his impressive outing.
- Krizenesky and Erickson each also set new career highs in points scored with 15 and 13, respectively.
- CUW is now 7-1 in home openers under Shawn Cassidy.

UP NEXT
- CUW will play host to Dominican on Tuesday Nov. 17 at 7 pm for their first conference game of the year.