RIVER FALLS, Wis. – The St. Olaf College men's basketball team could not overcome a slow offensive start in a 69-50 non-conference loss to UW-River Falls in its home opener on Wednesday evening at Skoglund Center.

UW-River Falls (1-2) held St. Olaf (1-4) to 19 points in the opening half and got 20-point nights from Zac Johnson and Jacob Butler to claim its ninth consecutive victory in the series with St. Olaf (1-4). Junior Kobe Kirk was the lone Ole in double figures with 14 points and pulled down a team-high six rebounds in the loss.

Senior Addison Metcalf was 4-for-6 from the field while scoring nine points off the bench for St. Olaf, which shot just 35.8 percent (19-for-53) from the field and 17.6 percent (3-for-17) from three-point range. First year Jaxon Strinmoen made all three of his field goals to add seven points.

Early buckets from first year AJ Uhl and Kirk gave St. Olaf a 4-0 lead two minutes in, but the Oles went scoreless for the next six minutes until a layup by Metcalf made it an 8-6 lead for UW-River Falls eight minutes in. St. Olaf endured another drought of over five minutes later in the half and went into the locker room down 30-19 after Butler scored 14 first-half points off the bench for the Falcons.

Johnson scored 13 of his 20 points in the second half to help UW-River Falls maintain a lead of at least nine points for the entire half. Kirk tallied 10 of his 14 points after the break, but St. Olaf could never put a dent in the Falcons' lead.

The Oles will head to the University of Northwestern on Saturday, Nov. 23 for a 3 p.m. tip-off in St. Paul.