Austin Daily Herald

The Riverland Community College men's basketball team picked up its first win of the young season with an 80-66 non-conference victory over Wisconsin-Richland Center Wednesday night. The Blue Devil women's team was knocked back to 0-2 with a 74-62 loss.

Riverland's men made waves with six three-pointers and a 22-30 free-throw shooting performance. The Devils had five players put up double-digit scoring, led by freshman Adam Kasper's 19. Kasper, an Austin graduate, has 17.5 points per game in Riverland's first week.

The Blue Devils host Western Wisconsin Tech in a non-conference clash Friday night at 7:30 p.m., and the alumni games will be played Saturday afternoon at Riverland.

"We just played very well," said Riverland coach David Lillemon. "We were very aggressive, and I was real pleased with our ballhandling."

The Devils committed just nine turnovers in their first win of the season.

Joe Dunham added to the offense with 13 points, Curt Peterson poured in 12, Kelly Connaughty tallied 11 and Jake Bettis netted 10.

Riverland led by seven at the half.

Women's woes

Freshman Hannah Tvedt scored a career-high 21 points, including 15 in the second half of Riverland's comeback attempt in an eventual 74-62 loss.

"We played a great last 10 minutes," said assistant coach Lisa Quednow-Bickler. "If we would have had a little intensity the first 30 minutes we probably would have won."

Riverland had just three defensive rebounds in the first half and the Devils were unable to start their fast-paced offense. Sophomore transfer Jenny Schnaufer led the team with seven rebounds and chipped in with 10 points. Tanya Jensen added points as well.

"We're shooting well, we just aren't getting enough shots off," Quednow-Bickler said. "We just let them set the tempo and they really slowed it down, and that hurt us."

Riverland had the lead for the first five minutes, but the Devils never got within eight in the last half.

The Lady Blue Devils play Saturday in the annual alumni game before going to Waldorf Tuesday night at 6 p.m.

Call Ross Thede at 434-2234 or e-mail him at :mailto:sports@austindailyherald.com.